HR issues? Call in the theater troupe

Employees might prefer an outing to see Hamilton - or maybe Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. But your workers, and therefore you and your business, are likely to benefit more from an in-house human resources-related performance of Taboo Topix, a compliance training presentation from Elgin-based Valuable Resources Co.

And what you're wondering likely is spot on: Theatre skits? HR topics?

Thanks to a portable stage and scripts based on actual HR issues, followed by facilitated employee discussions of the issues involved, Taboo Topix seeks to create issue (and possible solutions) awareness among employees.

Whatever the topic, the theatrical presentation, says HR veteran and VRC founder Laurie Huspen, "is far more effective" than the more typical speaker and power point presentation on the same HR issues.

"I'd look up and the audience was falling asleep," says Huspen with a mixture of humor and honesty. "How boring it is to have someone just talk."

Huspen debuted her theater concept in 2012. Her self-described "workplace training delivered through the theater" approach tends to grab and hold employee attention, in part because presentations are based on actual workplace events that resonate with an audience which typically recognizes and reacts to real situations.

"We're a theater training company, a tool for HR pros," explains Huspen, whose own experiences with discrimination in the business world led to Taboo Topix. Key elements are an initial assessment of a company's situation and post-performance discussions that are facilitated by an HR professional.

The Taboo Topix package includes an online follow-up three months later, a way to determine how much information employees retain.

Topics center on harassment and bullying prevention, broad subjects that, in spite of the issues raised by the #MeToo movement, involve not only sexual harassment but race, gender and disability harassment, Huspen says.

In fact, there are some interesting harassment statistics on the VRC website, vrc-hr.com:

• Sixteen percent of men report being victims of sexual harassment.

• Retaliation is the issue in nearly half (45.9 percent) of discrimination charges.

• Racial issues account for slightly more than one-third (35 percent) of discrimination issues.

Presentations also are available on active shooter situations, leadership issues and diversity in the workplace - subjects that can bedevil many employers. Add medical marijuana, concealed carry and transgender issues, and smaller and mid-size businesses without full-time human resources capabilities can be overwhelmed.

Theatre isn't Huspen's only HR educational tool; her consulting has a traditional style as well. For one thing, the actors that make up the Taboo Topix theater troupe aren't HR people, and VRC's human resources consultants aren't actors.

In the more conventional HR consulting vein, VRC will, for example, help create a compliant hiring process for its clients - though it doesn't do the hiring. The same we'll-create-the-process approach can work well with a payroll system. There's help with employee handbooks, growth issues and general labor-employment issues.

It's the theatrical approach to issues education that seems unique.

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