He explained that the business launched the internal transformation of HR – the biggest in the past 20 years of Shell – with a view to increasing business impact at a lower cost while providing an excellent user experience, in order to help Shell in meeting broader external business objectives.

The HR operations organisation is a key enabler in this HR transformation process, according to Colot, who said HR is primarily based in Shell’s Business Operations (SBO) organisation, which employs about 1300 HR operations professionals (42 per cent of Shell’s HR FTEs) in Krakow, Manila and Kuala Lumpur.

Collectively the SBO organisation supports approximately 84,000 employees and 15,000 line managers globally in 11 languages, and Colot leads the HR team from Kuala Lumpur providing support to Australian businesses as well as all other countries in Asia, Oceania, Middle East and North Africa.

“While we had very good experiences with HR operations servicing employees, we have taken the decisive step to put all direct line manager support in our operational centres too,” said Colot, who was speaking ahead of the HR Innovation & Tech Fest, which will be held at ICC Sydney from 18 – 19 November 2019.

The HR advice team in HR operations has become the main face of HR, supporting all major HR processes virtually in Shell by providing information and transaction support for HR processes a well as advisory support for high-touch processes (36 global processes and 400+ local processes overall).

The purpose of HR operations within Shell, Colot explained, is to “empower performance by creating exceptional HR experiences.”

Key elements of the HR transformation strategy
A thorough analysis at the start of the process involved a large community of HR and other professionals from across the business.

“HR and business leaders, as ambassadors for the change and with support of the change agent networks, engaged effectively to address these concerns and built confidence in HR capability”

Combined with learnings from peer companies, Colot said this resulted in a robust design which avoided pitfalls other companies experienced, addressed concerns people raised internally, and retained things that were working well in the business.

“During the capability building phase we singled out the most critical changes and processes for which we wanted to create a ‘wow’ factor from the start, such as supporting line managers with performance management for their people,” he said.

To help manage implementation after go-live, a dedicated team was put in place to detect and solve issues within a 24-hour timeframe.

However, thanks to a people-centric approach, thorough preparation and collaboration after go-live, this additional support was wound up a month earlier than planned due to swifter stabilisation and faster embedding of new ways of working.

Colot said the four elements that were key to success included:

• Integrated organisational design: carefully defining clear accountabilities and interdependencies across the HR function
• User-centric design: bringing the voice of the customer into design thinking, understanding business/employee priorities and concerns and engaging them early in defining organisation design principles, detailed design and usability of HR portal/channels
• Cultural and behavioural change: focusing on individual and organisational resilience through change
• Open and transparent change approach: a HR community directly involved in dialogue about organisation design, capability development, etc.

To help Shell’s HR professionals thrive through the change, a customised human performance and care solution, based on cutting-edge positive psychology and neuroscience, was developed in collaboration with Shell Health.

“Acknowledging and promoting an intentional care mindset in the workplace, the solution focused on new teams, new ways and new joiners to help build capacity for change and help people to thrive,” said Colot, who added that enabling culture and behaviours in HR operations focused on:

1. Empowering HR operations employees to take more accountability, make decisions at the lowest acceptable level, and take personal ownership for development
2. Getting better every day via continuous improvement and growth mindsets, supported by metrics, training, simplification and automation
3. Stronger focus on compliance and controls, specifically more discipline around data privacy and embedding the outcomes from control learning incidents.

“We engaged early and continuously with our HR community to allow them to understand the new HR operating model, how we work together and any personal impact”

“Caring and supportive leaders at all levels with the right skills to motivate, energise and coach our staff to reach their full potential, perform at their best and thrive in times of change encouraged higher levels psychological safety during change,” said Colot.

“This helped promote a culture of care where people felt engaged and where speaking up was celebrated.”

Technology driving transformation
Technology played a critical role in the transformation, and Colot explained that the enabling technology during this phase of the initiative was Salesforce (including automatic case distribution and chat functionality for line managers) for all HR operations staff, including some professionals outside the HR operational environment.

To improve the employee/line manager experience, Colot said the HR portal technology was also improved, with a focus on the ‘contact us’ options, navigation and content.

“We used a human-centric design approach, involving about 30 users in needs discovery and experience testing activities,” said Colot.

Shell’s process architects are all lean certified and he said they fully leveraged this capability during the HR transition, while the shift from proximate and dedicated HR support to virtual and shared HR support required a significant mindset change for Shell’s line managers – who were concerned that HR would become less effective.

“HR and business leaders, as ambassadors for the change and with support of the change agent networks, engaged effectively to address these concerns and built confidence in HR capability,” he explained.

“We engaged early and continuously with our HR community to allow them to understand the new HR operating model, how we work together and any personal impact.”

He said there was a significant focus on capability building, especially for the HR operations team, integrating mission-critical skills/behaviours, knowledge of the new HR organisational model (including ways of working) and knowledge/skill in the changing systems and processes.

“We have built a more resilient HR community, encouraged to take ownership of their own development, collaborate across HR and to support each other where needed”

All HR staff also had access to a personal capability building toolkit, helping to prepare for go-live and the first 100 days in their role.

Outcomes and results
In the course of the HR transformation, Colot said it was important to keep employee/line manager satisfaction metrics stable throughout the change.

“We have clearly met this goal, with employee satisfaction remaining steady around 93 per cent and 88 per cent line managers’ satisfaction, exceeding the expected 80 per cent after go-live,” said Colot, who added that the volume of issues raised remains very low.

After go-live, line manager experience interviews were introduced to get more qualitative data, and he said these interviews showed that line managers liked the new model, especially in terms of accessibility, speed and completeness.

“It is recognised that support has been simplified to reflect line managers’ needs,” he explained.

“Equally important, by investing in a care culture, we have built a more resilient HR community, encouraged people to take ownership of their own development, collaborate across HR and to support each other where needed.”

Colot said that the more efficient practices, such as having shared resources located in Krakow, Kuala Lumpur and Manila, resulted in Shell being able to achieve significant cost savings.

“By combining analytical and advisory work in HR operations, and extending beyond traditional support, we can continue to improve line manager support,” he said.

Colot will be presenting on “Empowering Performance by Creating Exceptional HR Experiences” at the HR Innovation & Tech Fest, which will be held at ICC Sydney from 18 – 19 November 2019. For more information please visit the website or call +61 2 9955 7400.

The post How Shell empowers performance by creating exceptional HR experiences appeared first on Inside HR.

HR is undergoing a fundamental shift. The rigid, policy-driven programs and processes of yesterday, which were primarily focused on compliance, efficiency, and conventional approaches to talent management, are giving way. Leading HR practitioners are replacing top-down programs and processes with more agile, worker-centric offerings – offerings that are personalised for employees and that are informed by a robust understanding of work and workforce segments – and design thinking can play an important role in this process.

Bersin research backs this up, and high-performing HR organisations are 3.5 times more likely to focus relentlessly on user experience when designing HR offerings than lower-performing organisations. This is a significant finding: High-performing HR organisations are also associated with a host of positive business outcomes, such as meeting or exceeding financial targets, improved processes, greater responsiveness to change, and enhanced innovation. It is also why design thinking is becoming an essential HR capability.

A design thinking mindset can drive results
Design thinking is more than a set of rote practices. It requires a mindset composed of three elements:

• User-centered design, which places the employee at the heart of the design;
• Human-centered design, which ensures that the design speaks to the emotions of users;
• Soft systems methodology, which ensures that multiple, divergent perspectives are incorporated into the design process.

When HR practitioners operationalise this mindset, they can achieve impressive results. Witness one of largest companies powering prosperity, use of design thinking to re-engineer its candidate assessment and selection process. The online financial solutions company’s redesign produced a 14-point increase in quality of hire (with almost two-thirds of new hires now receiving the highest quality rating), reduced average time to fill 12 days (or almost 20 per cent), and boosted new-hire net promoter scores by 14 per cent year over year.

A global leader in consumer transaction technologies used design thinking to address high rates of employee attrition, especially among new hires and key worker categories, such as customer engineers. It developed and used its new employee experience model to rebuild its onboarding process. The result: the volume of new hires who left dropped by 22 per cent, resulting in a savings of $7 million. In addition, turnover within the critical customer engineer segment fell from 34 per cent to 10.9 per cent.

Three working principles
Once HR has begun to establish a design thinking mindset, it can turn its attention to implementation. Design thinking is not a set of concrete steps followed in a specific sequence; it’s better understood and approached as a set of working principles.

1. First, seek to understand your employees and the problems they face
A key tenet of design thinking is the ability to empathise with employees, that is, to share their experiences and feelings. Design thinkers use observation and interview techniques to achieve this. Then, they develop personas (representations of the qualities and characteristics of typical users) and journey maps to better understand user populations.

2. Second, generate a variety of options and shape them into potential solutions
One of the pitfalls of problem-solving is rushing to find a single “best” idea. Instead, design thinkers seek to identify a variety of alternative solutions. This can increase the chances of discovering robust and innovative designs, especially when the options are generated by diverse and inclusive teams.

3. Third, test potential solutions with employees and refine them with data and feedback
Design thinkers don’t put all their eggs in one basket. They test solutions in the real world and collect both qualitative and quantitative data on the results. This allows them to deepen their empathic connection with users, define problems more precisely, and refinement solutions before committing to them.

A certain mystique has arisen around the design thinking, but there really isn’t any magic to it. HR professionals who develop the right mindset and put these three principles to work can soon reap the rewards of this essential capability.

The post Why design thinking is now an essential capability for HR (and how to adopt it) appeared first on Inside HR.

However, the analytics bar is likely rising faster than HR can leap over it – and HR needs to take a more proactive role in adopting people analytics which drive genuine business outcomes.

“As HR’s digital skills continue to lag, attempts to adopt people analytics are increasingly failing,” said Adam Canwell, head of the leadership services team at ‎EY, which conducted the Global Leadership Forecast 2018 – the world’s largest study on leadership – in conjunction with DDI and The Conference Board.

The research found that 70 per cent of HR professionals reported an increase in their people analytics skills and data-driven decision making – but this is not enough, the report suggested.

“HR executives need to get on the front foot with regards to driving value through people and leadership strategies through better use of people analytics and technology to provide strategic insights,” said Canwell.

The research report, which took 25,812 leaders and 2547 HR professionals at 2488 organisations across 26 industries worldwide, suggested HR professionals are now falling behind the business and are seen to be less effective than their non-HR leaders when it comes to meeting the challenges of a disrupted and volatile environment.

“There is evidence that HR people are falling behind in the important capabilities that support transformation,” said Canwell.

“There is a need for HR leaders to invest in their own development – particularly around business acumen and new HR technologies.

“They also need to stop talking about the use of analytics to drive people and talent initiatives.

“HR has to get ahead of the game on this and bring insight-led approaches to the business.”

“HR people are falling behind in the important capabilities that support transformation”

CEOs are also looking for HR to step up and provide strategic advice and drive on their major concerns, however, many senior executives do not believe that the HR team is set up to provide this strategic advice, according to a recent research report.

And over the past three years, the research indicated that HR’s reputation has gotten worse, with more leaders now believing that HR is simply a “reactor” that executes commands rather than an “anticipator” that develops a people strategy that enables the organisation’s business strategy.

Most HR leaders (41 per cent) are seen to be acting as “reactors” – reacting to the needs of the business, while only 11 per cent are seen to be acting as “anticipators” – HR professionals who are proactive about people/leadership strategy.

“Anticipators play a driving role in the strategy process rather than a passive or reactive role,” said Canwell.

Interestingly, he said HR see themselves differently with the majority (62 per cent) seeing themselves acting as partners and 17 per cent as anticipators.

One of the primary challenges in this is that HR is failing to develop digital skills on pace with technology advances, which undermines their ability and reputation to drive digital transformation across the workforce.

As a priority, Canwell said HR executives should focus on creating data-led people and leadership strategies to ensure the business has the right capability and a cadre of ready leaders to drive success in an uncertain and disrupted future.

“All industries and organisations are facing into the reality of having to transform the capability of their workforces – from leaders across all employees,” he said.

“HR has to step and help the business effectively manage the implications of this talent transformation.”

“As digital disruption continues to transform the workplace, we’re facing a massive leadership shortage worldwide”

The research report also found that C-level executives rank developing “next gen” leaders and failure to attract and retain top talent as their biggest challenges in the coming years by a wide margin.

In fact, only 14 per cent of CEOs believe they have the leadership talent to execute their strategy.

“If you’re deeply concerned about your organisation’s lack of leadership capability, you are in the clear majority,” said Evan Sinar, chief scientist and vice president of DDI, and lead author of the GLF.

“The tremendous amount of data we collected in this study shows that as digital disruption continues to transform the workplace, we’re facing a massive leadership shortage worldwide.”

Leadership megatrends changing the workplace
The report also revealed a number of other leadership “megatrends” globally:

1. Digital is reshaping the workforce.
Digital pioneers – defined as the top 25 per cent of organisations with the strongest digital leadership capabilities – financially outperform other companies by 50 per cent.

Leadership, particularly in the current digital era, is of critical importance to businesses, said Canwell.

“It is a top agenda item for CEOs and boards, who are looking for insights on how to embrace disruption to connect people and possibilities.”

2. Data is creating a more inclusive, agile, and fair workplace
Organisations with more women in leadership are 1.4 times more likely to have sustained, profitable growth, according to the research report.

Companies which have reached an above average level of gender diversity overall (at least 30 per cent) and at the senior level (more than 20 per cent) outperform diversity laggards in key leadership and business outcomes.

The report suggested that the leadership strategy of such companies relies not on meeting any single demographic target alone, but in integrating diverse perspectives into people, product and business decision making company-wide.

“If you’re deeply concerned about your organisation’s lack of leadership capability, you are in the clear majority”

3. A diverse, purpose-driven culture defines success
Purpose-driven companies outperform the market by 42 per cent, and culture emerged as a major driver of leadership success in the study.

The data showed that, for leadership strategies to succeed, organisations must build solid cultural cornerstones, such as a clearly communicated purpose, peer coaching, experimentation and psychological safety.

Diversity also plays a major role in building a successful workplace, which includes embracing gender diversity, leveraging diverse mindsets, and understanding the relationship between Millennial, Generation X and Baby Boomer leaders.

4. DIY doesn’t work
Just over half of the organisations in the top third for financial performance have formalised mentoring – and a “do it yourself” mentality leads to leadership failure.

The report provided clear evidence that leaders are increasingly expected to work in shared leadership environments, and that leaders increasingly need to build relationships with mentors to find success.

Additionally, organisations that rely on a self-directed, insular approach to learning are failing to engage leaders in meaningful development.

5. Finding new sources of leadership potential is crucial
Organisations that extend development of high-potential talent below senior levels are 4.2 times more likely to financially outperform those that don’t.

In the past, organisations have often had a narrow definition of the “type” of person who has leadership potential, and have invested their resources into developing a very small group of people who meet that criteria.

However, the report found that organisations that take a broader view of leadership potential prove to be more financially successful, feature stronger top leaders and have more women in leadership.

Image source: iStock

The post How to outperform competitors by a factor of 3.1 through people analytics appeared first on Inside HR.

The field of HR is constantly changing. Evolution, revolution and transformation are code words for change. Yet one topic seems to keep HR practitioners up late at night: the “seat at the table.” The more that we focus on this topic, the less we focus on the real question: “What does my CEO really want?

But, here’s another question. And it’s one you should be asking. Do you really need a seat at the table?

I believe that HR has always had a seat at the table. We should stop demanding a chair and instead recognise that we’re already there. We are more than just soft skills and labour relations; we are a foundational part of business strategy. So why do we think that we’re not taken as seriously as our other executive colleagues?

The world has and will continue to fundamentally change, HR is the key player in how a business should prepare and adapt. Arguing about whether we are held in high enough esteem damages the profession, making your people feel inferior instead of championing the valuable work they do.

Today, businesses are facing up to the huge task of digital transformation. It’s a modern-day industrial revolution. Companies are fundamentally redefining themselves, the key products or services they provide, the competitive landscape and the skills they need to be successful.

There’s no roadmap for this change. CEOs will rely on a number of leaders across the business to help carve a path into the future – and chief among these is the CHRO.

“Here’s another question. And it’s one you should be asking. Do you really need a seat at the table?”

Tomorrow has already happened
Why? Because HR has always been about growth and stewardship – looking at current ways of working to understand how people and culture can help shape the next iteration of the business. So planning for tomorrow is too short-sighted; knowing what will happen next year is a competitive advantage. This means assessing industry trends such as digital transformation and leading the business in creating the framework to reach its goals.

As HR leaders we need to lead change. We’re experienced in managing employee relations and regulations, but forecasting the future is new and its implications are obviously extensive.

An increased focus on agility is part of developing the workplace of the future. This will change the way organisations think about talent – the types of skills needed, flexibility in those roles and whether they’re long-term or “gig” positions.

To be a strategic driver of a business requires stepping up to lead the change.

Look at the plan your organisation has in place already – whether it’s only looking ahead to next year or stretches out to 2030. HR must be the enabler of this vision. HR must look at these goals and continually deliver against this plan.

Major change is happening and you can have maximum impact on digital transformation. We don’t need to wait for an invitation to dinner; we’ve been at the table since breakfast.

For more information on SAP SuccessFactors, the workforce of the future, the role of technology and what these mean for HR, visit SAP HR Insights. Image source: iStock

The post Time for HR to bite the bullet on digital transformation appeared first on Inside HR.

The first of these steps is to create meaningful management reporting that informs and enables improved workforce management and bottom-line performance.

HR can utilise integrated analytics to inform and enable executives and line managers to continuously improve workforce management and business contribution on an ongoing/daily basis, said Stephen Moore, general manager education & capability – people analytics for RITEQ.

While analytics are typically based upon fundamental areas such as leave liability, personal leave or headcount, Moore said these analytics can be substantially expanded to focus on more meaningful metrics in areas including:

• What is the nexus between headcount and current revenue or income?
• Are labour costs consistent with profit or income results?
• Are people scheduled and utilised in alignment with prevailing trading patterns?
• How well trained are employees, how much is spent and is this in the right place(s)?
• How satisfied and engaged are employees?

The second most important step for HR to effectively leverage people analytics is to create meaningful workforce planning and resourcing reporting that informs and enables effective labour demand and supply planning – linked to business plans and objectives.

“How can you effectively plan out your resourcing pipelines without first determining the type of roles, number of positions and timing of placements?”

In most HR departments, Moore observed that utilising people analytics at this level is almost always focused upon workforce resourcing and recruiting for a period, usually between six and 12 months in the future.

“This, however, inevitably leads to a case of putting ‘the cart before the horse,’” he said.

“How can you effectively plan out your resourcing pipelines without first determining the type of roles, number of positions and timing of placements – let alone changes in roles, skills or competencies required?”

An important starting point in this is through introducing a systematic labour demand forecasting program which informs future labour supply requirements.

“It’s all about looking at factors external to your organisation – ones that you don’t directly control – that will affect your demand for people, and then looking at factors internally in the organisation that you do control, that will affect demand for people, and finally your attrition rates which will also affect demand for replacement,” he explained.

When considering external factors Moore said changes to consider include changes in population size, changes in population demographics; changes in community attitudes or expectations; changes in market share caused by new entrants (or closures of existing ones) changes in economic forecasts, and changes in climate.

“There is no existentially right or wrong answer, just those factors that most impact on your particular organisation,” he said.

“There are so many challenges marching quietly towards all organisations that no one is taking the time to properly consider”

In terms of internal factors, considerations include key plans and objectives outlined in future business plans that will affect demand for people.

“This could include things like the introduction of a new product range, expansion into a new region or locations, investment in technology that will automate a part of your operations, or a call centre redesign,” said Moore.

In terms of replacement factors, it is important to consider historical and forecast levels of workforce turnover, retirement, leave of absence and absenteeism that will necessitate a demand for replacement.

“Once your labour demand forecast has been finalised you have built the foundations upon which to understand your future labour supply forecasts, identify critical risk resourcing challenges and build effective intervention strategies, like talent pipelines, graduate programs or even apprenticeships and technical trades development,” Moore explained.

The third important step for HR to consider in getting the most out of people analytics is to create meaningful workforce sustainability reporting that informs and enables proactive action in relation to long-term changes in workforce composition and demographics.

This is about creating metrics that enable the organisation to look and plan five to ten years out into the future.

“It’s looking at sustainability stuff, changing demographics and workforce composition,” said Moore.

“Wow, half our workforce is now over 50 years of age and productivity has reduced by 25 per cent”

“This level of people analytics measures and informs things like projected changes in workforce ageing, length of service versus knowledge management and transfer of knowledge, bench strength and depth of identified critical roles, generational change, change in ethnicity and diversity, level of reliance on immigration.

“So where is our organisation potentially at risk? There are so many challenges marching quietly towards all organisations that no one is taking the time to properly consider.”

Senior executives aren’t really incentivised to look this far ahead, according to Moore, who said HR is often so focused on delivering on operational priorities that it is not looking forward sufficiently either.

“Then one day the penny drops; people suddenly realise ‘Wow, half our workforce is now over 50 years of age and productivity has reduced by 25 per cent. ‘What are we going to do?’”

Common people analytics challenges for HR leaders
People analytics is not a naturally occurring skill for HR folk, according to Moore, who said this is not helped by the fact that it is not being taught in the majority of HR courses provided in the tertiary sector.

To be successful in this space, he said HR professionals must dedicate the necessary time and effort to develop their professional acumen in the following core areas:

1. Become efficient at data capture, cleansing and reporting.

2. Become competent at data analysis and interpretation through the effective use storytelling.
“Producing and distributing the most spectacular or stunning reports in isolation of anything else is unlikely to create major momentum for ongoing usage,” said Moore.

“Reporting is important but must be complemented by HR professionals competent in explaining the results in a manner that is meaningful to the target audience.”

3. Become capable of leveraging the reporting being presented/analysed in order gain support for an identified HR intervention or solution (such as ROI modelling or opportunity cost matrices).
“While people analytics is not in the natural DNA of HR folks, it is in their destiny,” said Moore.

“They must come to understand not only the value it brings to an organisation, but to them as HR professionals as well as to their career opportunities, promotion, recognition and business integration.”

“While people analytics is not in the natural DNA of HR folks, it is in their destiny”

How HR can improve people analytics skills
To work successfully at higher levels in their organisations, Moore said HR practitioners need to continuously develop their professional acumen, as well as their core competencies.

To this end, HR needs to create a structured development matrix that provides a clear process by which team members acquire new skills and capabilities.

“For example, how can we talk about providing strategic HR services if we don’t possess an in-depth knowledge of what strategic workforce planning is and how it works?

“Or transformational HR services when we don’t know what workforce empowerment or optimisation mean?

“How can we expect to successfully interact with CEOs, exec teams or even board members if we cannot effectively utilise the financial language of the organisation?

“Or develop a compelling business case? Or successfully deal with and overcome resistance?”

Finally, Moore also said HR needs to develop and utilise an integrated suite of practical and objective HR department effectiveness metrics that demonstrate the true value and contribution of the function to the organisations bottom line results.

“How can we talk about providing strategic HR services if we don’t possess an in-depth knowledge of what strategic workforce planning is and how it works”

Moore was optimistic about HR’s ability to get up to speed with people analytics, and during a recent trip to London he witnessed a major debate about the future of people analytics as a separate discipline requiring its own (global) professional institute to ensure effective governance and support as it grows and develops around the planet.

“While there was much debate about the background and skills set required (ranging from PhD capable data scientists to senior HR professionals with formal people analytics certification) there was no doubt the people analytics/insights function will become a necessary addition within astute HR departments seeking to broaden their impact and business contribution in the coming decade,” he said.

Australia & New Zealand: #2 in people analytics
Moore also observed that Australia and New Zealand fare relatively well against other countries when it comes to people analytics, and said the local region is “most likely ranked in second place”.

“Both the UK and Europe are well advanced in their understanding and application of people analytics. They get it,” he said.

“Their focus is now on working out how best to capture and use the available data.

“In the Nordic countries, in particular, they have long held a view about investment in systems and technology including human resources.”

Organisations in these regions don’t need to be convinced of the importance of people analytics, according to Moore, who said they are at the stage where they are investigating how to apply the necessary processes as effectively as they can.

Image source: iStock

The post What are the 3 best ways HR can leverage people analytics? appeared first on Inside HR.

The three elements of the HR transformation strategy focused on the readiness of available resources/people to support the business transformation, the available technology to access and support the change, and lastly, the process of HR management to realise the future stage of our HR operating model.

In the process, Voon said it was important to identify the key challenges and gaps that impeded HR transformation, and develop HR plans that aligned with business transformation needs and filled the gaps of current business operations.

The plan also incorporated redesigning HR operations across 14 countries by standardising all HR policies and processes, defining data naming, harmonising benefits and introducing cloud solutions to incorporate all the changes into technology with a guiding philosophy of process best practices, efficiency and simplified workflow.

“With the single source of truth and standardised HR framework, the greatest achievement is the accessibility of greater talent pools across the region and help in accelerating HR objectives in resources optimisation to support the business transformation,” said Voon, who recently spoke at Oracle’s recent modern business experience conference.

“We are now equipped with people/resources information that enables us to develop more plans to increase people capability and identify existing resources gaps for the effectiveness market talent acquisition plan.”

Fuji Xerox employs some 45,000 people globally and last financial year is generated revenues of 1183.4 billion yen (A$14.2 billion), while in Australia the company employs almost 2,200 people and its consolidated revenue was about $1 billion.

“We expect to achieve return on investment in three years”

The purpose of HR transformation is to support Fuji Xerox’s business transformation from product-based selling to a service and solutions-based organisation, according to Voon.

“At the same time, in order effectively support the changes, we examined our internal challenges such as people readiness, available data and information, and HR operation and delivery,” she said.

“Within the company there was no single HR platform, therefore HR operations were disparate, HR policies and practices were varied, there was no employee data visibility – and yet there was a high volume of manual and administration work performed by HR.”

As part of its global HR transformation, the company has also employed cloud solutions and Voon said these have shortened the investment and time spent on systems to realise the transformation within Fuji Xerox.

“With a series of interfaces as well as process automation to reduce duplicate and manual work, we expect to achieve return on investment in three years,” she said.

Other HR benefits include reducing the dependency on recruitment agencies, and Voon said this will enable Fuji Xerox to expand hiring channels beyond traditional approaches.

This includes social media and sharing of candidate pools through a single recruitment portal.

Beyond this, Voon said HR productivity has also improved by eliminating all the correlation tables due to different data management (such as job structure, job grade, employee types and headcounts) as well as a new reporting format.

For other companies looking to undertake a similar journey of HR transformation, Voon said it is important to seek top management support which is critical for successful outcomes.

“Also, link your proposed outcome to business strategy and expectations,” she said.

“You should also develop a future stage or ‘to be’ that benefits the entire organisation.”

It is also important to have a strong change management strategy in place to constantly engage various stakeholders by promoting the benefits and the “what’s in it for me”.

“You need to understand the interests of various levels within the organisation and customise the communications to hit their hot button,” she said.

“Link your proposed outcome to business strategy and expectations”

Globally, Fuji Xerox has a strong focus on HR and a key platform for this is effective leadership and the development of “real change leaders” in the organisation.

These leaders have the ability to focus on both short-term and long-term outcomes, and deliver effectively for both frontline employees all the way through to senior management.

There are four keys to supporting the development of real change leaders in the organisation, which include personal growth, HR systems which encourage challenges, enhanced corporate quality and strong leadership itself.

In terms of general employee development, Fuji Xerox globally operates an education system based on the type of work (R&D, production, systems engineers, customer engineers and sales) and employee level (new graduates, young employees, leaders, and management).

In type-based education programs for sales personnel involved in service and solutions businesses, business-specific professional HR training is conducted through practical, hands-on curriculums.

In development and production workplaces, there is a strong focus on fostering a corporate culture of problem-solving, by ensuring all employees speak the common language of the problem-solving framework.

And in employee level-based education, enhancing manager training in order to reinforce their abilities to develop their subordinates and improve problem-solving capabilities is a strong focus.

The post 3 keys to the successful HR transformation of Fuji Xerox appeared first on Inside HR.

 Our experience shows that it’s not the usual suspects, such as troublesome technology implementations and challenging budgets that undermine the success of HR transformations. The real culprits are both softer and far more controllable, and you’ll move faster and more successfully through your HR transformation if you follow a number of steps. The three areas where HR leaders should focus their attention are:

1. Clarify the vision.
There’s a classic change model that beautifully simplifies the essence of transformation – unfreeze, change, refreeze. In our experience, this simple, powerful approach by Kurt Lewin highlights what’s missing in most HR transformations. Many HR organisations muscle through their redesign or transformation process without the proper preparation (unfreeze) or follow through (freeze) to ensure engagement during the process and true improvement after.

Unfreeze: The reasons given for HR transformations are often either vague or technology-based. Our view is that you shouldn’t be transforming HR because you’ve bought new technology. You should buy new technology to support how you want HR transformed. This means the vision’s starting point must be a clear picture of HR’s future and the path to get there, including crisp statements describing:

• The outcomes that HR needs to deliver
• The changes we’ll go through to get there
• Why this is an exciting journey for you to join
• Why everyone might not make the journey

That vision should be your true north during HR transformations – it should guide decisions, provoke urgency and, hopefully, inspire. And, while it may seem a little awkward, that last bullet is a critical one to emphasise. If the new organisation requires new capabilities, not everyone might be able to demonstrate those capabilities, so some might not make the journey. Be transparent about your process and honest about the range of outcomes.

“There’s a classic change model that beautifully simplifies the essence of transformation – unfreeze, change, refreeze”

Refreeze: After the hard work of technically transforming HR, too few companies ensure its success by locking-in or “refreezing” the performance and behaviours most critical to the new model. “Refreezing” is an incomplete term to describe this phase because success requires both refreezing the new state and keeping it frozen. What works to reinforce behaviour change in any other setting works for refreezing as well. We’ve seen all the following yield good results:

• Define new HR rules of engagement: The transformed environment may require HR business partners and COE specialists to interact in different ways, or for either group to interact with clients in different ways. Call out and publicise the three or four (at most!) rules that will govern how you work together.
• Align physical settings: More effective HR processes can mean having HR teams or leaders sit in new locations that better physically align them with their clients or other parts of HR. Relationships matter and physical settings influence the quality of those relationships.
• Measure and report on vision execution: Identify the three metrics that best indicate if the transformed organisation is performing as designed. Measure them at least every 6 months and make the HR leadership team jointly accountable (ideally through compensation) for their success.
• Celebrate and reinforce: As with any behaviour change, reinforce through public recognition and reward individuals or groups who exemplify the skills and behaviours you want in the new environment.

Increase talent quality
There’s a lovely myth we hear from companies in the planning stages of HR transformation that sounds like this: “We have smart, capable HR leaders who are unable to do strategic, high-value work because of the administrative burden they bear. Once we remove their burden, their strategic, consultative and influencing capabilities will finally shine through.”

We wish personal change was this easy but our experience suggests that if an HR leader isn’t showing those capabilities before the transformation, it’s not because they’re overwhelmed by transactions and bureaucracy. No amount of burden-shifting will magically transform a tactical doer into a strategic thinker. Getting higher calibre talent requires that you crisply define the differentiating capabilities of a brilliant HR leader and thoroughly and objectively assess your leaders against that standard.

“No amount of burden-shifting will magically transform a tactical doer into a strategic thinker”

The definition: We recommend a very simple framework using three factors from our 4+2 model – business junkie, hr disciple and trusted advisor.

• A business junkie both knows and loves business. She understands the strategic, operational, financial and people sides of your business as well as any business executive. She warmly embraces the capitalistic elements of making and selling a product or service to make money for the business and shareholders.
• An HR disciple is deep in his area of expertise (talent acquisition, HRBP, compensation, etc.) and has a strong working knowledge of other key HR functions. He combines that knowledge to strategically and holistically solve business problems.
• A trusted advisor is seen as professionally capable and she builds great executive relationships. Her clients believe that she has their best interests at heart and they’re willing to follow her advice and be influenced by her logical, well-informed point of view.

Assessing for “fit”: We’ve seen both a comprehensive and a lighter approach be effective in assessing your HR leaders against this definition. The comprehensive approach involves looking at both the personality and capability factors that will predict success. If you’re shifting to a dramatically more complex environment, where past performance might not predict future performance, the comprehensive approach will be most helpful.

The comprehensive approach to capability assessment can include in-box exercises (a “light” assessment centre), select personality insights, 360 assessment and direct manager opinions. The personality assessments we love to use are by Hogan Assessments. Their core suite of tools measures personality, derailers and the type of work environment a leader prefers.

We often create a customised assessment for a client’s unique needs based on select items from those tools. A lighter assessment is appropriate for an environment that won’t be radically changing and where you already have good data and insights about the quality of the current HR team. In that case, we recommend a 360 assessment (we prefer the OPTM360.1 for this) using the three factors we list and “relative” scoring of the results. Relative scoring means ranking who scored higher or lower, not what score they received. 360 scores tend to be compressed at the high end of any scale, so relative scoring provides more accurate insights.

“We commonly see opportunities to dramatically speed the pace of decisions about HR process and HR leaders”

When you combine the results of these two assessments, you see a simple, powerful grid that provides important insights for selection. Those two dimensions allow you to sort HR team members into four categories:

• Great fit: These individuals have the mindset, behaviours and functional strength to thrive in the new organisation. They should be deployed into your most critical HR roles.
• HR pro: These leaders bring functional excellence and will effectively deliver HR services to their clients. They aren’t experienced in and/or don’t have the personality characteristics most likely to be successful in the new environment.
• Grow: These HR leaders have the right “raw material” – the mindset and personality characteristics that indicate potential success in the new environment, but they need to quickly enhance their technical HR depth to prove their value.
• Watch/exit: These individuals have relatively lower HR capabilities and lack the factors that predict success in the new environment. Some of this group may be able to move up or over on the graph (re-evaluate them after six months) and some are clearly opportunities for a talent upgrade.

Even with these frameworks you’re still predicting future potential, so assume the same “miss rate” as with any other potential assessment and that 10 per cent – 20 per cent of today’s choices will need to be replaced within 12 months.

3. Move faster
While it’s understandable that companies don’t want to rush the HR transformation process, we find that it’s not an abundance of caution but rather ineffective project management and equivocal decision making that delays progress. We commonly see opportunities to dramatically speed the pace of decisions about HR process and HR leaders.

Faster HR process design: As we mentioned earlier, HR process design should precede your technology choices, not be driven by them. This suggests that faster HR Process redesign will accelerate your overall HR transformation. Performance management is often in the crosshairs of HR transformation and provides a great example of how to accelerate process redesign.

Many organisations will spend 3 – 6 months, sometimes more, redesigning their performance management process. Over a series of 10 – 20 weekly meetings, questions about design elements will be raised, discussed and, at some point, decided. Given the voluminous amount of science and current practice to guide us, that timeline can be radically shortened.

“The secret is to focus the assessment process on gathering the few pieces of data that will most inform your decision, not the 67 competencies that someone could possibly display”

In our rapid cycle design process, we redesign complete performance management processes in two days. While that may seem impossible, it’s a very straight-forward, moderately-paced discussion and decision-making process that asks and answers the 50+ questions needed to craft performance management. This timely approach allows far more time to socialise your draft design and modify it based on comments from leaders whose opinions you value.

Faster people decisions: We described above two different approaches to assess and select the best HR talent for your transformed organisation. Even if you’re a large, global organisation where hundreds of HR leaders need to be assessed, you can complete that process in three months or less.

The secret is to focus the assessment process on gathering the few pieces of data that will most inform your decision, not the 67 competencies that someone could possibly display. Your sharp model – even if assessed with a personality tool, a 360 and some interviews – will dramatically reduce the amount of data you need to gather, analyse and present. Less data means faster interpretation and reporting and, hopefully, faster decisions.

The other factor that drives speed in this process is simply efficient project management. Your project manager should design a “lean” production model for creating this data – no waste, no slack. There should be a detailed project plan and weekly meetings to ensure progress.

Image source: iStock

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“Unlocking human potential will be the ultimate source of competitive advantage in the cyber-physical age and the organisations that flourish in this age will be those that can harness the human potential or their people,” said Anthony Mitchell, chairman & director of consulting firm Bendelta.

“HR will be responsible for removing barriers and encouraging everyone to access that deep well of talent and motivation inside of them to achieve their potential.

“If all employees achieve their full potential at the same time, the organisation can achieve so much more,” said Mitchell, whose company Bendelta is a sponsor at the marcus evans HR Summit 2017 HR Summit 2017, taking place on the Gold Coast from 27-29 March.

Society is fast moving into an era where machine learning and exponential technology are taking organisations forward in ways not seen before, and Mitchell said functions are getting more skilled at using digital data.

“As the service fuelling the organisation, there is a need for HR to employ much more scientific methods, utilise pioneering technologies and high-quality data to build capability,” he said.

The first step for HR in this is to “truly commit to excellence and scientific methods”.

“HR must look at organisational designs that were built up in the industrial age and no longer make any sense because they limit human potential, and remove those barriers to create what I describe as human potential organisations,” said Mitchell.

“Unlocking human potential will be the ultimate source of competitive advantage in the cyber-physical age”

“In these environments, people are more likely to achieve their positive potential.

“When combined with that of their fellow colleagues, it will drive even better business results.”

This means getting rid of the bureaucracies and traditional ways of working, which essentially treat human beings as “unthinking animals” who need to be “stove-piped into obedience”.

“We need the exact opposite now in this age of disruption,” said Mitchell.

“We need a level of agility like never before; we need human beings to use their capacity for creativity and collaboration.”

HR departments should use scientific methods, the leading technology and real-time data to do what works, said Mitchell: “not what looks good, not what defends the spending decisions that have been made, but what genuinely drives improvements and higher capability levels.”

Organisational leaders also play a key role in this process, and Mitchell observed that certain leadership qualities are timeless, such as honesty, being forward-looking and inspiring.

“We single out six key qualities that are important in leaders today: agility, creativity, empathy, collaboration, resilience and decision-making,” he said.

“Organisations can identify which qualities are most important for their organisation, the role or area of business, and focus on those.”

Employee engagement as a concept is also evolving, and Mitchell said that it is important that both HR and organisations move away from the idea that people are best treated as “robots or unthinking machines”.

“People give their most when they are feeling self-determined motivation; they give their all irrespective of how much they are paid,” he said.

“We need a level of agility like never before; we need human beings to use their capacity for creativity and collaboration”

“If we want that, it is important to achieve a sense of autonomy.

“We are most motivated when we have sovereignty over decisions when we feel that we are making meaningful choices.”

This requires the removal of barriers and impediments, according to Mitchell, who said the next step is to help people play to their strengths, but always be stretched.

“People spend too much time in their comfort zone,” he said.

“Nobody achieves their full potential on autopilot.

“People need to do things they are well wired to do, but always moving it to the next level.”

The other part of this equation is connecting people with each other, Mitchell said.

“We are social animals and we are at our best when we are collaborating with others,” he said.

“Finally, human beings are purpose animals, with a desire to do things that give our life meaning. “That is the final ingredient for tapping into someone’s full potential.

“If we join that with the engagement of others, we can multiply all of that potential together for amazing business impact.”

The marcus evans HR Summit 2017 will be held at the RACV Royal Pines Resort on the Gold Coast from 27-29 March. For more information contact SitiK@marcusevanskl.com or visit the summit website. Image: iStock

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Whether it’s a face-to-face interview, feedback from line managers, or day-to-day interactions with staff, they can tend to base decisions on emotion rather than facts. It’s a case of using the heart more than the head.

While this can result in positive outcomes, it means decisions are often made without having a complete picture of the staff member involved. Factors such as job performance, training and even prior experience may not be given the weight they deserve during the decision-making process.

Data-driven decisions
New digital technology now is rapidly changing this situation. A growing number of organisations are harnessing tools that allow them to take a much more analytical approach to staff management.

This new approach centres on the creation of talent profiles of each staff member in an organisation. While similar in concept to traditional HR personnel record files, these digital dossiers go much further. They contain everything from education details and prior experiences to summaries of on-the-job training.

The profiles can also contain information about an individual’s leadership skills, their current performance, and how well they are respected by their managers and peers. Such data provides a much clearer and holistic picture of an individual and their position within the organisation.

“It’s a case of using the heart more than the head”

Once in place, staff talent profiles can be used to map out career progression and succession paths and ensure individuals are in the best position to add maximum value to the organisation. Such insights were simply not possible before the digital tools that underpin the profiling system were put in place.

The approach is similar to that taken by organisations when it comes to their customers. Rich profiles are created based on knowledge of previous interactions that allow much more targeted attention and improved service levels.

Proactive advice
In addition to being an electronic repository for all relevant information about staff members, the software underpinning the talent profiles offers a range of other features.

When an individual enters details of their career aspirations, the system can track their progress and make proactive suggestions on extra training or new roles for which they should consider applying. As more information is entered over time, the profile becomes constantly more valuable.

Getting fresh information into the talent profile is made easier by opening access to the individuals themselves. Rather than being locked away in an HR department filing cabinet, the profiles can be accessed by staff members at any time. This empowers employees to take control of their careers in a very tangible way.

If the talent profiles are managed using a cloud-based platform, employees gain further benefits. They will be able to access and interact with their profiles from work, home or mobile device. This will allow them to be much more engaged with their career progression and have a clear idea of the steps they need to take to advance through their organisation.

“Rather than being locked away in an HR department filing cabinet, the profiles can be accessed by staff members at any time”

While digital talent profiles have, as yet, only been rolled out by a relatively small number of organisations, uptake is expected to grow quickly as the benefits of the approach become more widely known. McKinsey Global Institute research suggests that businesses deploying digital talent platforms to their full potential could increase output by up to 9 percent, reduce employee-related costs by up to 7 percent, and add an average of 275 basis points to profit margins. Companies have also been able to reduce attrition, and raise productivity by 3 or 4 percent when implementing digital HR practices.

The heart and the head are certainly not mutually exclusive when it comes to effective staff management. However, by taking the digital-first approach, having access to rich data as well as personal insights, HR professionals can be confident they are making the best decisions possible.

This shift in approaches is one that Oracle customer, Randstad is seeing as a necessity to gain a competitive advantage and stay ahead of the curve.  Christophe Montagnon, director of operations, shared earlier in a Forbes article, “Interpersonal relationships are important in our business, but to continue building trust, we must be one of the first movers in using digital technologies.”

Images source: iStock

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“HR really needs to gear up talent acquisition, talent development and talent retention around digital capabilities associated with the internet, software, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, robotics and other innovations,” said Govindarajan, who is a professor at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, fellow at Harvard Business School and New York Times and Wall Street Journal best-selling author.

This is particularly important as every business will become an information business in the future, and Govindarajan said value will be created in information and not just in the “hardware” of business.

“I think that trend is really starting to accelerate,” he said.

“Think about the automotive industry. It’s not about mechanical engineering anymore – there are driverless cars and new economies like Uber.

“They are shifting to artificial intelligence, so that’s where the game is going to be.”

However, what this means for jobs and the employment market in the future is uncertain, and Govindarajan said this remains the “billion dollar question”.

“Certainly, jobs will have to shift and this is what technology does,” said Govindarajan.

“What this implies for humanity? I don’t know the answer to that, because I don’t know if everybody can become a computer scientist.”

Historically, there have been profound implications for people every time there has been a significant technological development, according to Govindarajan.

“We don’t use landlines anymore; we have cell phones, and we don’t horse buggies anymore – we have automobiles,” he said.

“Every time there is a technological shift, there’s going to be a shift in the nature of the work and the shift is so dramatic now, the implications are profound.”

“The HR manager should be in there alongside other functional leaders such as the R&D manager or marketing manager”

Understanding the potential of these developments is important, but Govindarajan, said the key to leveraging these effectively is in understanding the business strategy.

“HR should play more of a strategic role, and not just that of a personnel function,” he said.

“When strategy discussions take place, the HR manager should be in there alongside other functional leaders such as the R&D manager or marketing manager.”

HR should develop talent management strategies in conjunction with the development or broader business and corporate strategy, according to Govindarajan.

“Aligning HR strategy to business strategy is the critical piece,” he said.

Govindarajan predicted that HR will become increasingly central to the strategy of organisations, as ultimately “everything is about people.”

“Strategy for corporations means nothing unless you accrue the right talent, put the right incentives in place, develop and keep the best people,” he said.

Govindarajan pointed to GE, which is currently reinventing itself to shift from a “hardware business” which focused mostly on products and services in the past, to becoming an information business which collects, analyses and leverages opportunities through data.

“One of the things they make is aircraft engines; an aircraft engine has hundreds of sensors, and a single flight from Boston to LA, for example, generates a huge amount of data,” he said.

“So what GE is developing now is the capability to capture and create valuable information using big data, and then understand the commercial applications and benefits of that.”

HR functions play a critical role in this process due to the talent required to make this shift successful.

“HR needs to understand the strategy – but the strategy doesn’t make any sense without HR, because ultimately GE has to become an information business.

“It’s all about people and it’s all about acquiring talent. So five years from now I would want to see HR as a central part of the corporate strategy in any business,” he said.

“Five years from now I would want to see HR as a central part of the corporate strategy in any business”

Innovation is another hot topic for many companies, and Govindarajan said HR also plays a foundation role in getting this process right.

“I think the key reason why innovation fails is execution, it’s as simple as that,” he said.

“Innovation is not about ideas, there are plenty of ideas – but companies do not know how to execute ideas.

“Executing innovation is troublesome for many companies, because execution involves finding and keeping the right people, setting up the right organisational structure, putting in place the right performance network, setting up the right work system, and so on.

“It is all a part of what HR does, and historically HR has viewed itself as a personnel function.

“Instead it should view itself as a strategic talent function, because HR can do so much more when it views itself this way.”

Govindarajan said this came back to HR understanding talent in both the individual and organisational context, and he said there are three key factors in this process: knowledge, experience and network.

Knowledge is about the academic qualifications and an individual’s ability to continuously learn and develop, while experience is about what happens on the job with different experiences to develop and nurture talent, and networking is about linking talent to other people to make the most of opportunities.

“If you can do those three, then you can effectively tap into the right talent base,” said Govindarajan, who added that this will become increasingly important in the future.

“The rate of change will accelerate in the digital world, so innovation will command a premium” he said.

“If you don’t innovate, you die.”

Image: supplied

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