House of Cards: Lessons for #HR

For the past week, I have been glued to my TV watching the third season of Netflix’s insanely gripping political thriller, “House of Cards.” I’m not proud to admit this, but at one point I cancelled plans so I could stay home and binge.  While I love the show for its compelling, twisty storyline and gripping performances (when I grow up, I want to BE Claire Underwood), as I was sitting watching the first three episodes of Season 3, I realized there was a valuable lesson for human resources to be learned. And, surprisingly enough, it comes from the driven, ruthless manipulator himself, President Frank Underwood.

For the first two seasons, Underwood’s driving ambition was to become the President, which he accomplished through dubious, nefarious means in the Season 2 finale. Now, as a mid-term president, he has stated his ambition to his wife Claire more than once: he wants to leave a lasting legacy on the world. He doesn’t want to be forgotten. And when you come down right to it, isn’t that what most of us want?

It’s certainly what the majority of employees in your organization want; they want their work to matter, to be recognized for their accomplishments and to know that they are impacting the organization in a lasting, meaningful way – much in the same way Frank wants to impact his organization.

It’s up to HR to work with executive leadership to promote a culture of recognition and thankfulness that shows employees how much they are valued. This culture of appreciation and recognition will go a long way to engaging employees and to helping retain them within the organization. And I promise that by fueling this desire for recognition, you won’t be creating a workforce full of Frank Underwoods. I don’t think the world could handle that.

This article was written by Erin Cushing from Business2Community and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network. SmartRecruiters is the hiring success platform to find and hire great people.