Hello May! Its time to create a culture of kindness #HRactsofkindness

Kindness. It’s a simple, yet an incredibly powerful word, isn’t it? Kindness is something we can see, it is rare but we can see it, however to me it has always been a feeling or an experience, I don’t go looking for it, but I am proud to create a small part of it to bring joy to people.

When I created HR acts of kindness three years ago, it wasn’t for publicity or to get more viewers on my blog, it was simply to enable HR to use a different tool in its extensive toolkit. We often hear the phrase “be more human” but being human, to me anyway, means being kind to everyone you encounter. Kindness is one of the most basic foundations of being human, it is inexpensive and the results can last forever.

So now that the April showers have cleared, it is time to get a spring in our step and create a new wave of HR acts of kindness, to get involved, read on!

Over the next month, I will be bringing you a series of blogs and tweets to inspire you to create your own HR acts of kindness in your own way at work, in your local communities and even when you are out and about.

Before I am accused of promoting a “fluffy” initiative (I have heard this a lot!) kindness is not fluffy, if anything, it is incredibly difficult to achieve because we are generally not used to it! We go about our daily lives too focused upon what is going on in our own lives, and that is understandable, we all live busy lives, but kindness doesn’t create itself, we have to create it ourselves and pass it on for others to experience. Kindness is not fluffy, it is leading by example.

So without further ado, let’s get this kindness wave going!

To make the challenges inclusive for everyone as I know there are a lot of people who work independently, there will be three different variations to them. This is a short week, but the theme is all about developing positive relationships. Your options are as follows:

1. Say thank you! You’d be surprised how powerful a thank you can be if it is for a piece of work well done, or if someone helps cover a shift, saying thank you can really make someone’s day so go show some gratitude!
2. Relay positive feedback you heard about a colleague’s work if they weren’t there to hear it.
3. Grab a coffee, we rarely take time to stop and get to know people, if it is a client that you’ve not spoken with in a while or a colleague you don’t know very well, make time to get to know them, grab a coffee in the canteen, at a coffee shop or even make a round for the office. Getting to know our people and learning from them helps HR professionals to understand our customer base better.

As always, I love to hear how you take on the small challenges so do share your stories with me! Message me in the comments below or tweet me, you never know, you might inspire the next random act of kindness!