HR on 'The Ice': in the extreme conditions of Antarctica, there is no place for weak HR practices

HR Magazine, June, 2004 by Ann Pomeroy

Weir says that managing employee expectations is a serious issue in an environment as harsh as Antarctica. "It's important to have good pre-season expectations and to set them up up-front--it saves disciplining after the fact," she says.

Expectations are communicated from the outset. During their first 10 days on station, new employees sit down with their supervisors to discuss expectations for the job to be done. This is the pre-season evaluation. A midseason evaluation is mandatory for winter employees and optional during the summer season, and the post-season evaluation determines the amount of employees' performance bonuses.

"For some people, I think we have missed their expectations," says Weir. "This is a work camp. Some people thought it would be more like a working vacation." Last summer, says Weir, there was a woman who couldn't physically do the job and had to go home. "She just didn't know how hard it would be."

When Weir arrived for her first season at McMurdo, she found that the HR department had a reputation as a "bad place," one where employees went only when there was a problem.

To right that, Weir instituted team-building exercises and began working to improve communications. For example, she started a popular newsletter in which she profiled a department and an individual each week.

Another well-received idea was a series of employee lunches. Each week, she and the station manager met with a group of about 10 employees over lunch. The employees liked having the opportunity to talk with the station manager and express any concerns they had or ask questions, she says. "Then I made sure to act on anything that could be done. There is a huge rumor mill here, and this helps quash some of that."

Weir also worked to improve supervisor training. Last year she had to deal with someone who was a "good mechanic but a poor supervisor," she says. She managed to "nurse things along" until the season ended, but the experience pointed out the need for good supervisory training. As a result, Weir instituted a self-review, which gives employees a chance to tell their supervisors what they believe they have accomplished.

Says Weir: "I hate to see people brokenhearted, their spirits crushed," when, for instance, they get a bad evaluation they didn't expect, and maybe didn't deserve. In past seasons, she learned, there had been a lot of "writing up" of employees for various infractions. Weir changed that. Last winter there were only three disciplinary actions, she reports, and "more than 2,000 'attaboys,'" a system she set up to reward people with cash prizes for being "caught doing something right."

It's a system that can help boost morale, which is critical, Weir says. "If morale goes down the tubes, we've got a big problem on our hands."

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