HR

Why Christmas sucks for #HR

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1) Pay Review – You know it is coming up. You know that you’re not prepared. You know that every single manager will be telling you why they are an exception. And you know that they’re right. It’s the ultimate annual clusterf**k of a personnel process. And it’s all yours baby. Happy Christmas.

2) Holidays – Where the hell is everyone? Christmas shopping days? School plays? Cheeky drinks with a supplier? Don’t you know we’re against a deadline people? Organising any sort of meeting suddenly becomes a Herculean feat yet everyone is rushing to get things off their desk before the holidays. I mean, seriously….

3) Recruitment – We need that vacancy filled now! But we won’t be able to interview until January. And we have no budget to spend. That’s ok. Right?

4) The Christmas Party – You’re in HR, you can’t enjoy it. You won’t enjoy it. But if you’re not there, then you’re a corporate disgrace. It’s the perfect example of inclusion/exclusion working in harmony. With fancy dress, optional. And….

5) Alcohol – Yeah. You know. You and me both. We’ve all dealt with far too many sad cases. It’s Christmas, it’s time to relax. But that never means forgetting where the line is. Be responsible people, the last thing you want is a grumpy HR Director on your case.

Technology is HR’s biggest asset

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Last week was a bit of a tech week. Starting in Sydney at the incredible HR Tech Fest and ending in Berlin at a digital “bootcamp” (including a visit to the games developer Wooga) looking at the latest consumer digital developments. Having finally got back to some semblance of normality, there are a number of things buzzing around my mind, causing me to reflect and think about the future of our profession.

1. Our employees are consumers, and as such are increasingly immersed in technology. If my expectation of the world is one where I can do pretty much anything at the tap of a screen, then why would my expectations be any different at work?

2. HR technology has changed and is changing. The future of technology is not the big, sole vendor, enterprise systems (although they are still dominant) that restrain you to one platform and one solution. The future is individual, integrated multiple vendor solutions that are best fit for your organisation.

3. We have the opportunity to excite and engage employees through the use of technology, rather than report on and process them. In the same way we willingly spend our time (and money) on consumer technology, the right solutions will lead the right behaviours and engagement within our organisations.

4. Cloud based and SaaS (software as a solution) technologies improve our ability to implement technology more quickly and at lower cost. Gone is the need for long project plans and implementation projects, we can trial, measure and develop a lot more easily. But successful implementation still comes down to good training and communication, nothing has changed there.

5. The opportunity to take our HR technology out of the work environment and in to the home, the commute, the coffee shop or the pub is going to become crucial. Being fully mobile, fully portable, whilst remaining secure is going to be a challenge, but our expectations as consumers is to access the content and services we need, when we need them, wherever we need them.

6. Good technology means good data. And intelligent use of data, as we know, is critical to understanding and leading our organisations to be better.

But the big tech-away (did you see what I did there?) for me, is that as an HR leader, you need to understand and embrace the opportunities offered by the new generation of technology solutions. It isn’t good enough to say, “I’m not a technology person” in the same way it isn’t acceptable to say, “I don’t do numbers”. The HR leader of the future is going to be immersed in technology and see it as their greatest asset.

If that isn’t you, then its time to brush up. Otherwise, you’d better start looking over your shoulder.

The soft, warm fart of social acceptance

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It’s lovely to hear the things we want to hear. We all love the platitudes that make us feel reassured and purposeful. The temptation is to surround ourselves with those that will reassure us and help confirm our undoubtedly righteous intentions. After all, nothing feels better than being right. Right?

But what if we aren’t?

And perhaps more importantly, what if we are neither right nor wrong, but could just be…..well, better?

Because growing and learning are about being willing to hear the voices that dissent and challenge. Success is built on the painful acceptance that we don’t always get things right. Confidence comes from the ability to face up to those who think differently and appreciate their views and opinion.

It’s easier to bathe in the relative comfort of the soft warm fart of social acceptance then to look in the cold hard mirror of critique and appraisal. And the world is full of the sycophants, the placaters and appeasers who will tell you and your organisation the very things you’ve just told them.

Having the confidence to embrace and engage with the voices that jar, the opinions that trouble and the thoughts that counter, is the sign of an organisation or person at peace with themselves.

Marginalisation, exclusion and avoidance are the sign of a closed ecosystem and a troubled mind. And whilst it won’t necessarily end in despair, it will always stop you being as good as you could possibly be and fulfilling your potential.

Seek the solace of platitudes, by all means, but you’ll always seek it at your peril.

Essential HR marketing

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Last week I wrote about the consumerisation of HR, the fact that we need to be obsessive about simplicity and “end user experience”. HR is essentially a series of products that we are trying to sell in to the various other parts of the business. Too often though, we overlook this and instead try to mandate, which has the impact of both disempowering us and annoying everyone else.

Which is really not cool.

We were looking at a particular HR intervention recently and sought feedback from line managers and employees across the globe on how we should go about it. Regardless of whether people came from Europe, Asia or the US, their answers could broadly be summarised as,

Keep it simple
Explain why things need to change
Explain what’s in it for me

Which is about as concise a summary of how to take a product to market as you’ll ever get. I’ve written before about the questions that we can use when evaluating what we do and whether it is value adding activity or HR nonsense. But it seems to me that these additional employee questions beautifully compliment that design framework when it comes to marketing our products and services.

Have we kept things as simple as possible? Is the design user friendly? Is it sexy and nice to look at, to touch and to hold? Does it have more tick boxes than a social security form or have we thought more cleverly about design? Have we chosen our language to engage and relate rather than to alienate and patronise?

What is the compelling message? Can we clearly articulate why we are doing something and the business or social imperative? Can we win hearts and minds and consistently and coherently explain the changes that we are making? Is the narrative the same everywhere or are there different complimentary messages for different groups?

What is the individual win? What will each employee group get from this intervention? How will employees benefit? What will managers get that is helpful and different? Will the leadership team be benefitting in a different way? If you sat down for thirty minutes with any single employee, could you (and every member of your team) clearly articulate the “win” for for them and each and every other employee?

Successful product design is hard. It requires thought and focus. It requires innovation and experimentation and it requires courage. But thinking about the end user, thinking about their experience and thinking about what they want is more likely going to make it successful than thinking about what you as a HR professional or team need. And ultimately more likely to get you success.

We shouldn’t be afraid of marketing, we shouldn’t be afraid of selling. We should always be out to win hearts and minds and gain commitment and “buy in”, rather than to seek mandates and enforcement. But at the end of the day, it’s a hell of a lot easier to sell in a well designed product than a lazy, thoughtless piece of work.

Which is why it is always worth spending the extra time thinking about the design and what it means to your people.