Perspectives from the Kinetix team on HR, Talent Acquisition & Management, life lessons and whatever else we want.
Energizing the Workplace
"If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed." -Mark Twain
Kinetix CEO to Present at 2010 Georgia CPA Conference
ATLANTA, Aug. 17, 2010 – Kinetix, the RPO for growth companies, is pleased to announce that CEO Shannon Russo will be offering attendees at the upcoming 2010 Southeastern Accounting Show (SEAS) keen insight into the differences among the generations in today’s workforce and how those differences affect a wide range of workforce management decisions.
In “Understanding the Generations at Work,” Russo, a nationally recognized speaker and writer, will give perspectives on:
· Enhancing comprehension of how generational differences affect people in the workplace,
· Promoting skills to foster intergenerational communication, and
· Developing abilities to manage diverse working styles across generations in the same office.
“For the first time in history, we have four generations at work in the U.S. workplace at one time, and there’s a great competitive advantage to having an appreciation for the differences in the events and experiences that have shaped them and how those differences affect their attitudes and beliefs in the workplace, and how that can affect everything from an organization’s planning for job training to succession planning,” Russo says.
Click here to read more about the 4 generations.
Tags: career, HR, press release
Four More Reasons the Right RPO KO’s In-House Recruitment for Mid-Size Businesses
Despite common thinking and modern myths, Recruitment Process Outsourcing can be a perfect fit for a mid-size organization – a company with as few as 100 hires annually. The days are gone when the arguments against this kind of professional partnership could stand up to strong argument.
In the first installment of their executive brief, “An Eight-Round Knockout: The Right RPO KO’s Mid-Size In-House Recruitment “An Eight-Round Knockout: The Right RPO KO’s Mid-Size In-House Recruitment,” the experts at Kinetix, the RPO for growth companies, explained why mid-size organizations have been neglected by most RPOs and shattered the first four of the eight most common arguments against an RPO being a good partner for a mid-size organization:
1. Recruitment Is Core to Our Business
2. With an RPO, We’ll Lose Control over Our Recruitment Process
3. With an RPO, We’ll Lose Control over Our Hiring Decisions
4. We Have Relationships with Specific Recruitment Vendors for Specific Needs
In this new installment, Kinetix delivers solid punches against the remainder of the most common arguments against partnering with an RPO if you’re a mid-size organization. The final arguments are:
Prevention and Wellness Lead Benefit Designs
HR professionals have been trying to control health care costs by continually tweaking the medical plan designs, which result in shifting more costs to employees but do not reduce the cost of health care. That is why the new focus needs to be on prevention and wellness.
While this is not a new concept there needs to be more focus on it in order for it to make a difference. Some of the moderate plan designs (such as 100% coverage for preventative testing and wellness exams and intrusive disease management) have not moved the needle enough. Also, discounts to health clubs and gyms as well as smoking cessation support have failed to influence the behaviors of most employees. It is time to take a more direct approach. Watson Wyatt conducted a survey in 2009 to see what the major trends for 2010 would be. There were five trends that were noted:
- Higher out-of-pocket costs
- Consumer-directed health plans
- Consolidation of health plan offerings
- Closer eye on spousal and dependent coverage
- Prescription drug benefits
- Greater use of incentives to stay healthy
The last trend, greater use of incentives to stay healthy, has been growing over the past three years according to the report, How Employers Use Incentives to Keep Employees Healthy: Perks, Programs and Peers, which is conducted by Health2 Resources, a firm providing health care trend research.
“During tough economic times, employees who take control of their health and are more engaged and active in their own health are valuable assets,” says Katherine H. Capps, president of Health2 Resources. “We are not talking about $5 here or there. We are talking about serious investment into productivity, made by employers with as few as 200 employees, for as much as $1,400 a year per employee. Employers are taking control of health care costs by creating smart, effective new strategies to keep employees healthy, and to keep employees at work.”
Employers are not only making greater investments in wellness they are calculating their ROI. The percentage of US companies calculating their ROI on wellness investments has increased from 14% in 2007 to over 73% in 2009 with most, 83%, reporting at least a 1:1 return. These companies are rewarding achievement both during the program and continuing after the program is completed. This measurement of ROI has lead to an increase in investment with the average in 2009 being $329 per employee and ranging from $1 per pound lost to up to a $1,500 reduction in premiums. Another trend is the extension of these types of offering to dependents including disease management programs which have typically not been available to dependents.
These programs must start with a comprehensive confidential health history questionnaire. Two-thirds of all size companies are offering this type of health assessment to their employees and three-fourths of them are also offering incentives for their employees to participate in these questionnaires. These incentives range up to $300 annually with a small percent, 10% to 15%, offering more. While company size does matter in whether incentives are offered, it does not dictate the value of the incentives. Some companies with as few as 210 employees are offering incentives valued at $1,400 a year because they see the benefit to keeping their employees healthy. This benefit not only is health care cost reduction but also shows up in reduced number of sick days and increased productivity.
Programs are being designed to prevent and manage chronic disease. Smoking cessation programs have been around the longest. In this latest survey more than 53% of the responding companies offer some type of smoking cessation program to their employees. Other programs such as weight loss and increased physical activity are gaining popularity as they are continually being linked to more chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease. Diabetes management programs are the most popular disease management programs with over 92% of the companies surveyed offering these programs.
The biggest challenge that companies face with all of the preventive and disease management programs is how to keep them going and to keep employees involved. Like any behavior change, time is the key to success. The more you practice a new behavior the more likely it is to become a new habit. However, time is also the biggest obstacle to success. Behavior change is hard and more people cannot keep up the motivation long enough to succeed. Companies need to calculate into their plan design ways to keep the motivation up. This may require an added investment up front but should give a greater return on that investment in the long run.
“Employers are becoming more sophisticated about measuring the return on investment from wellness and disease management programs, and today’s economic outlook dictates that these programs bring a positive ROI,” says Sean Sullivan, president and CEO of the not-for-profit Institute for Health and Productivity Management. “No other kind of health management program has been given the same scrutiny as health and productivity management in measuring its effectiveness in reducing total health-related costs, including sick days, disability claims and impaired performance at work. Employees are too valuable a human capital investment for companies to take their health and productivity for granted.”
The above quote is the best conclusion I could come up with for this post. As managers of our companies talent we need to be proactive in the approach to preventative heath care and continued wellness of our employees, not just to reduce health insurance cost but to protect our companies greatest asset, its employees. There is a skill shortage that we will really feel when the economy recovers and added to the increase of global competition, HR professionals need to do everything they can to retain their skilled talent and keep that talent productive. I hope each of you accept these challenges and make a true difference in your companies.
Diane has over twenty five hears of HR experience, twelve of which were at the HR Executive level. As Director of HR Solutions for Kinetix, Diane uses her extensive experience to work with organizations to solve their business issues with talent solutions and working directly with the Executive Team to design an integrated Talent Strategy that aligns with their Business Strategy. Diane is a thought leader in her profession and has been awarded the SHRM-Atlanta Lifetime Achievement Award and the SHRM Nation Pinnacle Award. Connect with Diane on her LinkedIn profile.
Tags: Benefits, healthcare costs, HR, wellness programs
Operational Excellence Depends on Cultivating Talent’s Strengths
As if the global economic situation isn’t enough to keep an executive up at night, concern abounds when you consider that only 20% of employees working at large organizations use their strengths on a daily basis. Since that poll was taken, downsizings, layoffs and restructuring have become every day occurrences. As a result, already compromised organizations now find themselves with fewer employees and the same, or even larger, amounts of business-critical work to be done – even as the majority of their employees’ capabilities remain untapped.
Globally, only 20% of employees working in large organizations we surveyed feel that their strengths come into play every day. Most bizarre of all, the longer an employee stays with an organization and the higher he climbs the traditional corporate ladder, the less likely he is to strongly agree that he is playing to his strengths. Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton, Ph.D. brought those startling results to light after The Gallup Organization polled 198,000 employees working in business units of 36 large corporations. The pair later expounded on the survey results in their breakthrough tome, “Now, Discover Your Strengths.”
Survey respondents who “strongly” agreed with the statement that they were working from their strengths produced improved results over those who did not work from their strengths, according to the poll. Consider these poll results:
- 50% of the employees’ business units experienced lower employee turnover;
- 38% were more likely to work in the organizations’ more productive business units; and
- 44% of their operations posted higher customer satisfaction scores.
How well can your company compete with a staff working at 20% of its true capacity? If your answer is “Not very well,” now is an optimal time to turn to a proven human resources approach that leverages each individual’s strengths to create high performance teams. In competitive global markets, mining the massive opportunity buried in the 80% of unused strength-based capacity can mean the difference between survival and market dominance.
Leverage your strengths
Precision-Based Team Building
One approach to achieving more with fewer employees centers on precision-based team building – an innovative effort that creates strength-based working units. Precision teaming takes into account the strengths and weaknesses of each employee before creating the working unit.
This approach flies in the face of “traditional” human resources utilization which often spends the majority of HR staff’s time addressing the weaknesses of so-called “problem employees.” In precision teaming, each potential team member’s strengths and weaknesses become part of the overall team’s capabilities. Taking the precision teaming approach empowers HR executives to compensate for one team member’s weakness by selecting another team member with strength in that same area.
Literally changing employees’ brains
Creating strength-based teams not only allows each team member to come to the assignment from a strong position, it leverages the total potential power of the collaborative collective. In fact, neurological research points out, refocusing employees’ attention via strength-based teaming can actually change the molecular structure of their brains.[1] Schwartz writes, “…directed, willed mental activity can clearly and systematically alter brain function.” He explained saying, “The exertion of willful effort generates a physical force that has the power to change how the brain works and even its physical structure.”
The strength-based approach to teaming pays dividends to employees and their employers now and in the future as the employees’ brain-resident priorities are literally re-prioritized. “Therefore, to continue to rehearse counterproductive behaviors reinforces the physical structures in the brain that create the urge toward that behavior. A strengths approach encourages individuals to focus on the correct use of their innate abilities which subsequently reorders the brain to produce behaviors indicative of excellence,” Schwartz concluded.
Preparing to create teams
Implementing strength-based teaming relies heavily on three key HR-based activities – a stringent skills assessment which looks at individual potential through a “collective-oriented” lens, aligning skilled capacity with the company’s business goals and a compensation structure that incents lateral moves.
Creating high performance teams depends on an accurate and up-to-date inventory of each employee’s strengths and weaknesses. Several automated tools for skills assessment, including but not limited to StrengthsFinder® 2.0, Halogen eLearning Manager, Oracle’s PeopleSoft Enterprise Human Capital Management and a range of inhouse-developed systems, can streamline data collection and speed analysis. Attempting to create teams with strength data only is akin to trying to complete a puzzle while missing 50% of the pieces.
Before teams can be created, Human Resources experts need to review the organization’s business goals. Knowing the direction in which the company is headed, especially in respect to product, technology and market lifecycles, is vitally important to creating productive teams. For example, if a large number of employees currently work in product areas, industry markets or technologies that are about to be “sunsetted” or phased out, that information influences redeployment decisions. Also, emerging products, markets or technologies that will need a fully staffed organization to be best positioned for success must be considered as well. The human resource expert can use the skills inventory to determine how much of the staff currently allotted to the sun setting areas can be assigned to the emerging offerings, even identifying the types of training needed to make the transition.
Compensation restructuring, the third recommended activity, plays a critical role in helping ensure a successful transition of motivated staff. Employees targeted for redeployment must see the new assignment as a reward and an opportunity to showcase their strengths. To do that, the compensation scheme must incent lateral moves with the same career enthusiasm and pay package as clear “advances” up the corporate ladder. In fact, the compensation package associated with lateral moves that enable the company to be more competitive in the marketplace may even outstrip those of “advancing” positions.
Conclusion
Armed with the employees’ collective’s skills inventory and its own expert analysis, Human Resources executives can create high performance teams that leverage employees’ strengths and compensate for individual’s weaknesses – all while helping to advance the company’s business and improve its bottom line. Aligning compensation with the company’s business goals will reward employees’ flexibility and reduce turnover, likely building long-term loyalty to the company. Tapping into the unmined 80% of true capacity that today goes unused not only benefits the company, it creates employees who are engaged in their work and look forward to the next challenge.
Diane Tuccito is currently the Director of HR Solutions for Kinetix and has over twenty- five years of HR experience, 10 of which were at the HR Executive level. In her current role, Diane is working with companies to solve their business issues with talent solutions. Her focus is on three main areas: Organization Design, Talent Optimization and Total Rewards.
[1] Schwartz, J., “The mind and the brain,” New York: Harper Collins, 2002.
Tags: HR, human resources, Operational Excellence, Retention, Strengths, team building
The 6C’s of Change Management
More than 80% of all change initiatives fail because management of the change is ineffective, for many reasons, from poor planning to incomplete implementation. With ‘Change or Die’ as a mantra for the 21st century, organizations should focus on building their strength of change management capabilities. And who better to lead change management than the HR function?
There are dozens of books on managing change in business, and at least as many different models and variations. In my experience, most of the models, whether they work well or not, look complicated and can seem overwhelming to implement. In this article, I’ve simplified the best aspects of the core of these models — the 6C’s of Change Management.
1. Communication. This most critical of the C’s flows through all of the other aspects, and must be timely, factual, two-way, and ongoing. The type of media and delivery channels should be chosen to ensure that all constituent audiences are reached and given the opportunity to have their questions and concerns addressed.
2. Critical Need. Ensure that the underlying reason(s) for the change are supported by a critical business issue. These reasons then need to be communicated to all levels of the organization. Begin with the senior management team to create unified support at the top. The HR leader should facilitate these discussions to reach agreement on the project’s objectives and goals. The agreed upon, critical need for the change should then be communicated to all employees through group meetings (if possible) and/or printed and electronic communication.
It is recommended that group meetings are lead jointly by the CEO and HR Lead.
3. Contribution. Managers and employees should have the opportunity to offer suggestions that would help in meeting the project’s objectives and goals. The HR leader can facilitate this via an on-line survey to test the methods, tools and techniques being considered for use in the change initiative. Additional suggestions regarding the implementation of the change initiative should be sorted through open-ended questions or a comment section. This instills ownership in the project by the broadest base of employees.
4. Commitment. A by-product of contribution, you’ll gain commitment to the change process by sharing feedback from the survey, reviewing the project process, and demonstrating where employee participation was considered in the final plan. People are more committed to a plan when they feel they have participated in its design.
5. Completion. Each project milestone, as it’s completed, should be communicated to all employees. In order to keep the energy and enthusiasm alive, it’s important everyone witness the progress being made. This step is especially critical for projects that have a long implementation timeline.
6. Celebration. Maintain overall project motivation by celebrating after critical steps are completed. This could be something as simple as an email from the CEO thanking everyone for their participation, to a large party event for all employees.
It is important to know that these steps may need to be repeated as you move through the project. With any project, it is important to measure progress frequently and make adjustments along the way. This may mean a follow-up survey to address a new situation or obstacle. You can see why communication is critical and must be fluid throughout the entire initiative. You can’t over communicate.
The process of managing change is neither easy nor simple. The 6C’s are not intended to give that impression, but should be used by any HR leader to organize the key aspects of change management and create their own project plan around a firm foundation.
By: Diane Tuccito, SPHR,CCP, GRP
Director of HR Solutions for Kinetix, LLC
Pull vs Push in the Candidate model
holding candidates away
In the course of our talent acquisition work at Kinetix we invariably see both the good and bad habits of both companies and candidates in the process. One item that regularly bothers me on the company side is a behavior practiced by so many corporate and HR folks that we call it the “Heisman”…. that is to say that they feel so overwhelmed by all the applicants to their job postings…many of which may not be qualified for the specific position in question – that they do everything possible to keep candidates away from themselves at all costs. The result is a stiff-arm mentality that is only engendered by the fact that most ATS systems are generally not set up to allow a candidate to register interest in a company without applying to a specific job. Doug Berg wrote a great post on this topic for Recruiting Trends (see full post here) that gives a great perspective on this – I have included an excerpt below:
“Many employers haven’t even considered the simple concept of offering prospective candidates the ability to enter their email into a simple employment newsletter integrated into your career site. By using email subscription services such as Constant Contact, you can begin to harvest email addresses of candidates from your site. Another great option would be to setup a LinkedIn Group, a Facebook fan page, or a Twitter account for prospective employees. This would allow prospective candidates to follow your jobs in the social channels, and provide you with a way to capture their interest. Your recruiters can post future positions into these channels, which auto-broadcast them to this pool of prospects online, helping to capture the initial interest of prospects, and recycle them when future positions arise, helping to leverage these easy tools to fill future positions.
Of course, the ideal solution is to setup a talent community option on your company’s career site for prospective candidates. This way they can join or “opt in” to show interest in your company without having to go through a full apply process.”
Given that I believe the war for talent is still here (just dampened by the current economic situation) and will only get worse when the economy picks up, I wonder how long they will get away with not only hazing candidates with their process but pushing away perfectly valuable talent because they are too overwhelmed to see past the current task. Add to this craziness that these same companies often spend tens of thousands of dollars annually on job boards….to “pull in candidates”… this is a recipe in stupidity. Though it’s not push a button exersize, a company can do any of the things Doug suggests, including add a landing page in their career section that asks one to enter email and perhaps some other simple items with or without resume – (link to Linkedin perhaps?) to show that you want the company to keep in touch. If you want the best and brightest, why wouldn’t you do this?
Tags: ATS, Audit, candidates, human resources, job seekers, Talent Acquisition, talent pool
The big get bigger, and the small kick their a**
If I wasn’t already excited about the potential for 2010 to be a better year, the start of February cemented it. Three mega-deals were announced the first week of February by Monster, Manpower and Spherion, respectively.
Details on each here:
Why should I be happy you ask? I guess I’ll respond with, in a sense I know better. While each of these deals promises something on the order of enhanced earnings, scale and service line extension, etc. for the acquirers (any of which may become true); the actual result in the short to medium term will be confusion, disruption and internal/cultural unrest. Sounding cynical, no? I fundamentally believe this will be the outcome as in 99% of large organizations, the focus is on getting the deal done (& I should know since I did M&A for a career) instead of the critical and hard tasks of real integration. And I am not speaking of functional, technical and legal integration – I mean the true cultural focus, communication of a real combined vision and concrete plans to assimilate the best of each player.
At best there is a “company line” on both sides for the deal, unfortunately with no true examples actually put into action, at worst, the “company line” is a complete sham vs the strategic imperative for the deal (like maybe Monster can get the top volume spot back from indeed.com for a short time, assuming that really matters). Either way, the people in the trenches all know some version of the truth, and perhaps worse in some cases, do not care. [hmm, like...how are you really feeling if you work at hotjobs right now]
So, what does that mean for the rest of us? Well, as bad and frustrating it can be to be inside of these organizations, the disruptions will create a number of opportunities for those in the same or adjunct spaces.
- Their focus will become internal, allowing for others to pick off client relationships while they are not staying customer minded
- Key members of these organizations will be uncomfortable or unhappy in the resulting combinations or with the uncertainty created – a chance to poach top performers
- Their messaging will likely be muddled – internal as well as external, providing an opportunity to provide clarity of solution to prospects in stark contrast
- The deals will force the management teams at times to take their eye off the ball – and miss changes in the market as they strive to justify the purchases & accretion irrespective of actual business performance.
So, if you are in any of the many related industries, take heart and go get some business this year! There is great chance that you will be able to leverage these mega-attention sucks and succeed in your chosen markets. Additionally, you can look to pull top talent during the unrest to enhance your team. If you are at one of these firms…..sorry for the dig – take this as a warning: my suggestion is do your best to not let all of this get in the way of your own personal success and focus.
Personal vs Work…you in or out?
I sit here on the plane, contemplating what is important in life and how so many things can get lost in the day-to-day. Conversely, there is so much to add to your life if you take the time to experience and appreciate as it happens. Platitudes, I know…..Yesterday a colleague and I got to spend time with some new friends, learn a tremendous amount, share experiences and begin to build a relationship. I am at once overwhelmed and energized by the trip. Further, the time and the learning have begun to give me a target, focus and framework for one of our main BHAGs this year. Since I am an incredibly goal oriented person, this has been cathartic as for me, not having clear direction on an objective is both agonizing and distracting for me. At the same time, I realize how much I miss my children and my husband and how special they are. It could be the great conversations we had about our host’s families and kids in addition to the work talk; it could be that I got to spend time this morning with a friend I have not seen in many years and rekindle our relationship, or as I learned yesterday, perhaps it is altitude sensitivity (?)……but think there is more at play here. Simply, this is a preferred way to do business. Or, this is the way that I want to do business, anyway.
My career began a very “traditional” model, climbing the corporate ladder, working hard, and playing hard too, but usually not too much together. That is to say that I, like most corporate denizens, had my work life and relationships, and for the most part – separately – my personal relationships and life. A great example of this early on was when a friend came to visit at my office and was chatting, congratulating me on being inducted to my University’s Athletic Hall of Fame (which completely floored and shocked my assistant). Now it could have been that she was the prototype Staten Island working girl and thus made a huge play of this news and how shocking it was to her……but the reality is, she never saw me that way because I did not think my historical or personal stuff is what they were paying me for. Now that is NOT to say that I did not foster personal relationships with work colleagues both inside and outside my firm, I simply did not believe my personal life and activities were important to my work life.
I never looked at these relationships as a holistic part of the right way to DO business. I always looked at it as who I was, and that building relationships as something I liked to do. I understand there has been tremendous dialog, certainly within social media on the need for “authenticity” and how the walls must and will be transparent or broken down between these distinct areas of our lives. What I am getting at is slightly different – not just that you need to do this to be “real” and successful in social media, but more that you should view this melding as a key part of how you will be successful in your job or business going forward.
I for one have a new year’s resolution to actively pay attention to these relationships – both traditional “home” type and business. I now believe that we can be tremendously more successful and importantly have more fun if we do this purposefully (thanks William for articulating this better, and how timely). You have so many more opportunities to help another, the more touch points you have – and vice versa. I could go on, but you get the point and my flight is landing.
So, what about you?
Tags: BHAGS, career, HR, human resources, life lessons, Social Media, truth
Here’s to 2010 and Beyond!
Thanks to Bill Boorman for sponsoring the HRCarnival video blog asking for quick comments on ourthoughts for the coming year. Bill is a great guy with a 
passion for the HR/recruiting world and seems to never sleep even with the time zone differences (he is in the UK). I also wanted to thank Bill because this forced me to do my first ever video blog post….from my home office mess in my weekend attire complete with baseball hat. Well – here’s to embracing all that is and moving forward even with things that terrify you….i am sharing my first with you.
Thanks for indulging me – and let me know if you think this is a decent way to deliver messages (snickering aside) and for which kinds of stories.
Shannon
Tags: career, career search, changing industry, HR, HR consulting, human resources, job search, LinkedIn, LinkedIn network, Social Media, Twitter
HR Challenges: start with Accounting vs. Finance
After reading Mark’s great post and the others he references about the possible future of HR and it’s ability to change (or not) - I wanted to elaborate on the thoughts about the challenges in the function especially related to the tactical nature of much of the foundation work. An excerpt from Mark’s post:
“There has been an incredible amount of chatter lately regarding HR’s future/fate and it makes for a very good read. In the past few weeks alone HR was declared dead and then rose from the ashes. Maren Hogan wrote a nice post with the catchy title, “Slow dancing in a burning room“. And don’t forget when the smart folks at Harvard Business tackled an age-old missive by asking, “Do HR managers have the skills they need?“ The underlying assumption by each and every writer is the premise that HR must fundamentally change. That may be true, but my sense is that “do nothing” is not only an option, it’s a likely outcome.”
I agree with Mark’s view that “doing nothing” is a likely outcome precisely because it is tough (as a group) to enact change to the tenets that made the function up to now. The HR challenge I see has 3 broad components: the first, is one of functional and focus disparity – that is, the very skills and behaviors that make one successful in HR up to a certain level (and in many companies, the only level) – are the very things that hold these practitioners back and keep the business from respecting them. My career background is finance and I liken this to the fundemental difference between most accountants and finance types. Now, that is not to say that one cannot cross over from one function to another, however as a whole, most people will align and prefer one over the other to a significant extent. My definitions, while broad, outline the fundemental issues HR practitioners have in crossing over (and should easily describe the personality types). It easy to see that if you are successful in your career to a certain level in one of these columns, you are unlikely to change your stripes later on:
|
Accounting |
HR |
Finance |
| Uses historical data (e.g. fixed) to produce a defined set of statements, consistently every period | Transactional data: benefits & payroll info, low level ee relations prescribed | May use historical data, but work is generally forward focused or analyzing drivers of the business vs. tracking the data itself |
| Told how to view data (GAAP, FASB, etc) | Plan and Policy documents, also legal, IRS, etc views on what can be done and not. Even compensation usually prescribed from external consultants | Uses both external and internal data and analysis to form and “sell” opinions (valuations, trends, etc), strive to provide solutions |
| Use and rely on external “requirements” to dictate to the business their need and say “no” | Use and rely on external “requirements” to dictate to the business their need and say “no” | Transactions tend to dictate focus and often change, more often work is support to the business |
| Focus on compliance | Compliance focused | Business need focused, or transactional focus |
| High consistency of large volume of transactional work under set periods | Transactional requirements drive – plan periods and compliance reporting | Business agreements and market needs dictate work and focus |
| High degree of certainty in work/needs – significant creativity not appreciated | High degree of certainty in work/needs (ee relations aside) | High degree of uncertainty |
| Ticks and ties | Everything must fit the plan (no variations) | Variable analysis and 80% solutions are norm |
The second leg of the HR challenge stool I see is one of volume and significant changes in the landscape. HR will always have a challenge relative to strategies for
the business or be considered a partner of any sort if the benefits are not managed correctly, or the 5500 is not filed on time. Unfortunately, if HR cannot deliver on the significant amount of transactional tasks inherent in its mandate, it will never be considered for a seat at the table. Add to this the changes afoot with things like labor relations, pay reform, training and more – and you have a recipe for a very busy team just to keep up.
The last leg of my HR challenge has been discussed many times before. Those at the Top, for the most part, do not see a need to change. Add to this my view that many get or got to HR historically as a placeholder — someone that the boss did not know what to do with, and it is no wonder they don’t want to change. (I know I will get howls on this one, but can name you more than a handful that came this way and are at the top now).
My feeling given these 3 challenges is that the future of HR may truly lie in breaking the function apart and aligning the similar functions into groups that can support the business in new ways and attract the best talent which will allow the function to be seen as less of a backwater and more as function (or functions now) directly in support of the business. I will be interested in your thoughts.
Tags: Audit, compliance, HR, HR consulting, human resources
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