HR should become more creative and bold in creating innovative, high-impact talent strategies that genuinely add competitive advantage

HR should become more creative and bold in creating innovative, high-impact talent strategies that genuinely add competitive advantage, writes Josh Bersin

As the economy continues to grow and the job market gets tighter (new research by MRINetwork shows that 90 per cent of recruiters surveyed now think the labour market is “candidate-driven”), the pressure on HR continues to mount. The Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends 2015 survey shows that this year, respondent HR professionals give themselves a C minus in their ability to drive talent solutions, and the issues of employee engagement, culture and work–life balance are often now considered CEO-level issues. How can HR continue to keep up?

An answer is starting to become clear: HR itself should become more creative, innovative and bold. Our most recent research, which was supported by our big research conference in May, shows that today’s high-impact talent strategies are not typically “best practice” programs copied from another company. They tend to be creative, innovative and new, developed uniquely for your company and built around an organisation’s strategy and brand.

Dell, for example, is a company now recruiting heavily for technical staff in a highly competitive market with many younger, hot technology companies. The company found that its employment brand, while strong, was not as compelling or dynamic among younger technical people, so they needed to do something bold. In an innovative new strategy, the HR team helped turn the entire company into an “army of brand ambassadors”, helping dramatically change Dell’s employment brand and reach.

Jennifer Newbill, global senior manager candidate attraction and experience, shared with us that Dell has trained more than 15,000 employees across the globe to become social media certified as a part of their company brand strategy. She also created new programs on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to help attract candidates, developed a program where videos and articles about how people loved their careers at Dell could be shared, and oversaw the training of all its recruiters to take advantage of the brand ambassador program.

“Today’s high-impact talent strategies are not typically ‘best practice’ programs copied from another company”

While this is not a new concept, Dell’s focus on “invention” and building this program from scratch helped the company dramatically increase its candidate flow and quality of candidates in the first few months of operation.

Are you happy with your company’s performance management process? Our research shows that two-thirds of all companies we surveyed are not, and fewer than 20 per cent of employees think the process is worth the time they put into it. The answer should not be to replace your performance management software but rather to reinvent and re-create the process from scratch. Many companies including Adobe and GE are now redesigning the way they assess their people, each with their own innovative approach. The concepts of “check-ins”, “two-way feedback” and “ratings-less evaluations” are all starting to take hold, all driven by HR teams’ willingness to reinvent and innovate.

Look at your recruiting, on-boarding, performance management, coaching and training today. If it’s not driving the value you need, it might be time to go off-site, or even “reinvent from scratch”. T-Mobile recently did this with their entire suite of talent practices and, as a result, dramatically simplified most of the talent management programs in place. Today, T-Mobile’s employee engagement and Glassdoor ratings are doing extremely well.

In today’s fast-changing world of business, technology and work, we can’t always assume that the tried and true approaches to HR are best anymore. Now especially is the time to consider inventing, recreating and often starting from scratch. Your results will often be fantastic, and you’ll likely be surprised what good ideas you have.

5 keys to innovating within HR

  1. Research now shows that “Bold HR” practices – those invented from scratch – are often far more powerful than iterating or improving the way you do things today.
  2. Recruitment, learning, on-boarding and performance management are all undergoing rapid change – think about these practices from scratch, and you can apply fresh thinking to help simplify and improve.
  3. Design thinking, the process of learning what the employee experience is like in detail, is often now core to the reinvention of HR practices from top to bottom.
  4. CHROs and VPs of HR should sponsor and help HR teams take the time to “start over” and rethink HR programs with a fresh perspective.
  5. Innovation likely means taking some risk, making iterative improvements, and piloting programs that may not work the first time. Examine your culture and push yourselves to try new ideas, and over time they can deliver order of magnitude enhancements in your HR effectiveness.

Image source: iStock

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