Forecasting demand

HR is More Important Than Ever

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The HR profession has evolved drastically over the years. HR professionals have seen a general shift from a transactional focus to a focus on strategic activities. HR also has an increased presence at the executive table and can truly influence an organization. In fact, HR may be more critical now than ever—indeed, not having an effective HR system in place may be the demise of an organization.

The quest to hire and to keep employees is at a critical juncture in North America: organizations that are able to retain employees will prosper, while those that are not will perish.

The statistics coming out of the USA are alarming. The Seattle Times states that American workers’ willingness to quit their jobs is at a 17-year high, and that “there are now just 0.91 unemployed workers for each available job, the lowest on record”.

Click here to read more about the hiring crunch.

These statistics are alarming for any employer that is trying to hire or keep employees. The potential supply of employees is small, meaning companies will have to do things differently to be successful — and HR has to be at the heart of this activity.

The activities HR must do differently include the following:

  1. Speed up the hiring process. Would-be employees do not wait for HR to get back to them, employment candidates move on very quickly.
  2. Focus on turnover rates. Find out why employees are leaving and address the issues.
  3. Be flexible. Millennials and older members of the working population represent two of the largest available hiring pools, but both of these groups want flexibility in the employment relationship.

HR has always been the gate keeper for hiring, and HR professionals now have to find ways to draw potential employees in as fast as they can by offering competitive wages and flexible policies.

 

Discussion Questions:

Research whether or not using applicant tracking software speeds up or slows down an employer’s ability to hire?

What can HR do to hire suitably qualified employees in a timely manner?

How an Organization Views Their Employees Matters!

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Big data it is a huge trend in today’s business world. It’s in the headlines and organizations are trying to gather and use it effectively. Big data analytics has expanded its scope yet again, the hot new topic being employee analytics. Actually, Deloitte has a fancier name for this leading-edge HR trend: High-impact people analytics.

Research conducted by Deloitte illustrates that when an organization reaches a high level of maturity on high-impact people analytics it is significantly more successful. The research demonstrates that organizations using people analytics in effective ways report 82 percent higher three-year average profit than “low-maturity” organizations.

An 82% increase in profit is a huge return. How does organizational success like that come about? Well, Deloitte provides a road map to develop a high-impact people analytics organization.

Click here to see the map.

The Bersin Deloitte consulting study outlines seven key findings on how an organization can mature their people analytics. This blog will focus on one key finding from this study, which is: “using multiple listening channels.”

Click here and scroll until to you see the concept of Enterprise “listening” architecture.

HR in today’s organizations is complex as many organizational problems have multiple causes. If there are multiple causes, the more information channels an organization can access, the greater the probability that it can solve a problem effectively.

This is where the use of multiple listening channels comes in. There are a number of ways to listen to what employees are saying about an organization. For example:

  • Organizational cultural audits
  • Frequent pulse surveys
  • Anonymous feedback tools
  • Performance reviews
  • Coaching programs
  • Exit interviews
  • HR key performance indicators
  • Social media monitoring

Which of the above channels is your organization listening to? Deciding which channels to listen to is key to designing your listening architecture. HR has always been about taking subjective information and making it more objective. By using sophisticated people-analytics and developing the correct listening architecture you can greatly improve your capabilities, which will in turn increase your organization’s chances of success.

Discussion Questions:

Pick three of the above listening channels, and for each one research a system that would allow you to collect credible information.

If you were an HR director, and were asked to pick only one listening channel, which one would you choose as your first priority and why?

 

Upcoming HR Trends, 2018

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HR trends may not be radically changing year after year, but they are becoming more intense and more critical to organization success. Every year the HR professional should consider what the current success driver for HR is in their industry. You never want to be the dinosaur asking, “does anyone else feel it’s getting colder here?” To avoid becoming obsolete in your profession you need to stay on top of what is happening in the external business world, and reflect on industry trends.

  • Here is a 2017 survey that sums up some of the current HR trends:
  • Less transaction, more strategy
  • Less formal but more frequent feedback
  • Less manual process, more data

Click here to read about the Paycor HR trends survey.

These are not radical trends, nor are they particularly disruptive, but they are important changes in HR. Each one should be reflected upon by the HR professional. All HR professionals should ask themselves the following big questions every year:

  1. Which transactional activity does HR do that is obsolete?
  2. What is the most important area of business strategy I should focus on this year?
  3. How can HR improve the employee performance management system this year?
  4. What HR data should we keep tracking? What data should we stop tracking? What data should we start tracking?

Doing this on a regular basis will keep you and your organization current, and will enable your organization to be proactive instead of reactive. This is what Jim Collins calls the flywheel effect in his book “Good to Great”.

Combine the flywheel concept with a reflective HR practice and there is business success in the forecast.

Discussion questions:

Read the Paycor HR trends and survey. Pick the HR trend you feel is the most important, explaining your decision. In addition, research a company that is a leader with respect to that trend.

Click on this link. Pick one of Jim Collins’ articles and create a 3-minute presentation summary of the topic.

 

Top HR Trends for 2017

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What’s coming next in HR?

Business and healthy lifestyle concept. Portrait of young office woman doing fitness exercise at workplace. Happy beautiful business lady doing side bending posture on her break time
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Deloitte has produced a comprehensive document on the top HR trends for 2017. Some would be easy to spot if you are an HR professional that keeps current; others trends are not so easy to see. Here are some of the overriding trends in HR for 2017:

  • No organization no matter what size can survive without some type of HR. HR has permeated all organizations to their core.
  • Continue to move and improve HR systems away from transactional to not only strategic but to applicable, with the creation of technology apps that make workers more productive.
  • People or employee data analytics will become more functional, no longer just storing data but analyzing HR data for organization decision-making.
  • The use of data to influence performance management in a meaningful way. Many organizations will drastically re-invent their performance management systems with real-time assessment and employee engagement.
  • Increased emphasis on the learning organization; according to Deloitte millennial’s rate training and development as the top job benefit.
  • There will be a greater requirement for expanded recruitment sourcing.
  • There will be an explosion in new wellness initiatives in the workplace.
  • One of the most disruptive HR trends will be the incorporation of artificial intelligence into work.

If Deloitte’s trends and disruptive innovations are accurate there will be a lot of HR to do in the coming year.

Click here to read a summary of the top HR trends by HR ONLINE

or Click here to read the complete document.

Discussion Questions

  1. Review the nine HR trends for 2017. Which one do you feel will become readily accepted? Which ones do you feel will be challenged by HR or employees?
  2. Pick two up and coming HR trends and develop an action plan for what you have to do to become more knowledge about the trends.
  3. If you had to pick one trend to implement, which one would you pick for an HR department to implement and why? Defend you answer.

A Key HR Error

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 Job analysis why is it so dreaded?

Most HR departments make a critical performance error, they do not take the time to conduct a proper job analysis of their organization. This is akin to asking a contractor to build a house without blueprints. You will get a house, but the rooms may not be in the right places for your needs.

Let us review some expert opinions on job analysis:

Monica Belcourt in her text book, Managing Human Resources (p. 124)m states:

“Job analysis is sometimes called the cornerstone of HR Management because the information it collects serves so many HRM functions”  

Richard Melrose in his article, Stop Ignoring Job Analysis, states:

“I put the blame squarely on the C-suite, starting with the CEO and followed closely by the CFO, CHRO, and CLO. The chairman of the board and the lead director ought to take some heat, as well. All of these folks know or should know the costly and risky nature of their company’s neglect.”

Click Here to Read the Article.

It is easy blame the C-suite when HR does not get things accomplished. As the theory goes, HR is only allowed to do what the C-suite allows them to do, as the C-suite controls the resources.

HR could accept this notion and sit and wait for the C-suite to give them the authority to conduct a comprehensive job analysis program.  However, HR should not do anything else until a comprehensive job analysis program is completed. Everything HR does is derived from job analysis programs such as:

  • Recruitment
  • Training
  • Compensation
  • Promotion
  • Performance appraisals
  • Job descriptions

This is why the website, Management Study Guide, has a great article called the Advantages and Disadvantages of Job Analysis.

Click here to Review the Article

The article states the advantages as:

  • Provides First Hand Job-Related Information
  • Helps in Creating Right Job-Employee Fit
  • Helps in Establishing Effective Hiring Practices
  • Guides through Performance Evaluation and Appraisal Processes
  • Helps in Analyzing Training & Development Needs
  • Helps in Deciding Compensation Packages for a Specific Job

And states the disadvantages as:

  • Time Consuming
  • Involves Personal Biasness
  • Source of Data is Extremely Small
  • Involves Lots of Human Efforts
  • Job Analyst May Not Possess Appropriate Skills
  • Mental Abilities Cannot be Directly Observed

All HR professionals are aware and some are even afraid of the disadvantages and therefore choose not to conduct job analysis.  Let’s look at the definition of cornerstone from the Cambridge Dictionary Online:

“Something of great ​importance that everything else ​depends on”

If everything else in HR depends on job analysis don’t HR Professionals have to take the lead and develop systems that can overcome the disadvantages?

Discussion Question:

  1. You are getting resistance from your CEO that job analysis is too time consuming, provide research and a business plan to convince your CEO that job analysis is vitally important to the success of the organization.