Being a human resource professional right now at Gravity Payments must sure be a challenge. Mr. Price’s innovative idea of setting new minimum salary of $70,000 makes it to the list of the top bizarre ideas that I have ever come across. (Holocracy is next in the list).
Dan Prince is not the only leader whose ideas regarding people management puts the HR team in turmoil. In my few years of experience, I have come across many leaders whose bizarre people ideas have left many a HR folks wondering what hit them. Imagine a leader who believes distributing cake at regular intervals would solve most of the people problems existing in his department. Is he better than the leader who believes that his teams must get absolutely no cake?
My point being – smart people can make stupid people decisions. One part of our job is to chase these ideas out before they are put to action or make sure they are well thought out before implementation. The harder part is making sure that our own limited visibility and short sightedness doesn’t chase the brilliant ideas out too.
Gravity is looking for a HR manager. In my opinion, this would be a highly fascinating job. Maybe if I were at Seattle, I’d consider taking up the challenge. Right now, I’m sitting and wondering if I’ll see Gravity payments in the news anytime soon again.
P.S: Here’s Kris Dunn’s opinion that I enjoyed reading: http://www.hrcapitalist.com/2015/08/the-time-the-ceo-raised-the-minimum-salary-to-70k-and-found-out-this-people-thing-is-kind-of-complex.html
The HR Business Partner Story 