Hope Rising: On Becoming More Human

There will be no picket lines, no protests, no violent uprisings. No conference calls, no memos, no PowerPoint slides. No announcements, no guidance, no explanation. Unlike other revolutions, this one will not come dressed in the traditional accoutrements.

This will be an invisible revolution. Its root cause will be guised in stories intended to cover up the truth. Don’t worry. It’s not that you will be unable to attract employees. You will. You just won’t get the best. It’s not that all of your current employees will leave. They won’t. You’ll only lose the best. This revolution is a silent revolution – one in which you will likely never know why the best people choose not to work for you and your best employees choose not to stay.

This is the meaning revolution. In its wake, Human Resources is about to undergo the greatest cultural and academic revolution in its history, but it doesn’t know it yet. Then again, this is how most revolutions begin. Silently, yet with the ambition of David, revolutions surprise everyone. Although in hindsight, they surprise no one. All revolutions share a common calling. They make us more human. This silent revolution is one caught between apathy and the eternal search for meaning. It is a revolution taking place in the most complex and least understood places on the planet - inside the human heart. At this point in the arc of history, Human Resources will be valued much more for its humanity than for its resourcefulness. Here’s why.

The coming revolution is a revolution of hope. What does it all mean? Why am I here? And what are you [my employer] going to do to help me figure it out? We’ve helped re-structure, re-organize, and re-engineer. We’ve innovated, executed, and gone from good to great. We’re fully-outsourced, outspoken, and outside the box, but now what? Isn’t there supposed to be a pot of gold at the end of every rainbow? Why doesn’t the stuff in my pot shine? Where has hope gone?

Although you cannot see hope rising, you can see its effects. Consider this. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average 18- to 34- year-old invests only 2.9 years in a job before looking to greener pastures. If young people have lost hope, have we all? Do they lose faith in themselves or in their leaders; in the present or in the future? Regardless, they leave. And when they do, for them, hope is restored. And then, the cycle repeats itself.

Add to employee churn the disturbing findings of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. In its annual study of workplace fatalities, OSHA reports that the fourth leading cause of workplace fatalities among men (No. 2 among women) is homicide. No wonder despair is the single largest drain on workplace productivity on the planet. According to the World Health Organization, depressive disorders account for the greatest cause of disability in the world. In the WHO's annual World Health Report titled Mental Health: New Understanding, New Hope, researchers discovered that over 36 percent of all years lost to disability are due to mental illness. This is a crisis—an ominous cloud hanging over leaders, organizations and human resources professionals. However, it is not only those who suffer from clinical illness that are members of the meaning revolution, it includes all of us. As Xavier Frapaise, vice president of research and development for TAP Pharmaceuticals, observed in our conversation, “I have found that most people struggle with the meaning of life. The least that I can do as a leader is to help them find meaning in their work.” We are all in search of hope, including the financial community. Take a walk down Wall Street.