Innovating the HR Conference (#HRevent)

 

    So you probably know that I’ve been one of the people behind the introduction of unconferences into HR in the UK.  I love these events and am really interested to see how they develop – perhaps with more small groups like ConnectingHR arranging organically to get together and learn from each other, and with the traditional conferences, outside those operating in relatively specialist areas, retreating into a smaller and smaller role – or whether the traditional conference providers get smart and update their models to make conferences less formal, more social and therefore more appealing, meaning that people might not see so much need to do things for themselves.

World Trade Group, organisers of the annual HR Directors Business Summit (plus the Pan European HR Summit, and the first CHRO Summit in the US later this year) are, I think, leading the field in looking at how the traditional model might change.  So on Wednesday last week, I chaired the second day of the HR Directors Business Summit which integrated unconferencing into the formal conference.

This isn’t a completely new idea, so for example, HR Technology US and HRevolution were run together last year, and even included a couple of HRevolution sessions on the last day of HR Technology.  But there was no real cross-over between the two (and actually, though I love HRevolution, it’d not really an unconference).

At the HR Director's Business Summit, we’d already decided to do a proper integration:

• Completing the unconference grid during the first day of the conference
• Running unconference sessions (discussions, not presentations, based on issues delegates wanted to discuss)
• Using the final conference panel session to feedback on, and get further input into, the discussions in the unconference.

 

On the morning of the unconference day, we made a further change to this, deciding to make the panel into an ‘unpanel’, in which we’d start by sitting up on the stage, feeding back on the unconference, and then move into the delegate seating area, facilitating the broader discussion from within the crowd.  (Reinforcing the point that this isn’t a completely new idea, although I thought I was making the term up, a Google search on ‘unpanel’ throws up 38,200 results!)

In general, I think it went really well, though there were a lot of things I learnt, and I’d do differently if and when I do the same thing again.  But the energy and involvement in the unpanel (at least during the last 5 minutes) were like nothing you’d get in a traditional panel, and I hope that even though it was messy, people will have appreciated the authenticity!  And by participating in the conversation, I honestly think that people will have learnt a lot more as well.

Comments?

 

We also had a twitter display up to generate inputs from beyond the confines of the auditorium (around the conference hashtag, #hrevent) - here are some of the tweets:

 

Thanks to:

• Stephen Pobjoy, conference producer at World Trade Group
• My unpanel members:
  • David Clutterbuck, Professor, Oxford Brookes and Sheffield Hallam
  • Harvey Francis, Executive VP, HR, IT and Communications, Skanska
  • Donna Miller, European HR Director, Enterprise-Rent-A-Car
  • Lisa Winnard, HR Director, Sesame Bankhall Group
• The blogsquad for the tweeting:
  • Rob Jones
  • Gareth Jones
  • Mervyn Dinnen
• All the delegates who took a risk and came along, particularly those who acted as sponsors for the discussions
• ConnectingHR, the members of which acted as a fairly large proportion of the above.

 

Technorati Tags: HR,Directors Business Summit,unconference,unpanel,David Clutterbuck,Harvey Francis,Donna Miller,Lisa Winnard

 

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Unconferencing at the HR Directors Business Summit

 

   This is an (updated) article I wrote to support the HR Director’s Business Summit next week:

 

The next HR Directors Business Summit taking place in January 2012 will, for the first time, feature an unconference.  Since this format may be unfamiliar to many delegates, I have written this article to explain a little about the history of unconferencing, and what you can expect if you attend one of the unconference sessions at the Summit.

 

What is an Unconference?

Unconferences, also commonly known as barcamps, are events a bit like a conference, but which also quite unlike a conference, as there are no pre-set agendas, pre-booked speakers or formal presentations.

Instead of this, unconference attendees all participate on an equal basis, deciding between them on the topics which will be the focus of the unconference, and all contributing to conversations around these topics.

Unconference attendees are also encouraged to take responsibility for their own participation.  As well as helping to set the agenda, this includes deciding on which sessions they are going to attend and, if necessary, moving between sessions during the unconference to ensure they are contributing and learning.

But probably the main difference between the two formats is that rather than following a model of traditional training, unconferences focus on social learning.  Even if they involve less dissemination of expertise (because nobody is there as an expert), everybody’s learning is usually greater because it is built upon the knowledge and insights of all participants.

 

What is the history of unconferencing – why have I never come across it?

Unconferences are based loosely upon Open Space Technology and were first held in the Californian ‘technology geek’ community in the late 1990s and early 2000s.  Their use extended slowly into HR, led by people like Jay Cross, the pioneer of informal learning, and Jason Davis, the founder of Recruiting Blogs, with Recruitfest in 2008.  The first cross-HR unconference, HRevolution was held in Louisville, Kentucky in 2009.

In the UK, unconferencing also kicked off in the recruitment space with TRU (the recruitment unconference) in 2009 before moving into broader HR with Connecting HR and CHRU (Connecting HR Unconference) which I established in 2010 with Gareth Jones, who at that time was leading one of the UK’s main HR recruitment agencies.

Connecting HR has now organised three UK based HR unconferences and feedback has been extremely positive, with participants stating that they have learnt as much, if not more, than they do at most conferences, as well as developing many more, and deeper, relationships which they continue to draw on to support their learning after the event.

However these unconferences have been largely limited to users of social media.  The HR Directors Business Summit will see the first time that an unconference has been run for a broader HR population and also the first time that one has ever been fully integrated into a traditional conference.

Increasingly of course, unconferences are also being organised within organisations, but it is still currently early days in their broader adoption. So we would not be too surprised if you have never heard of them before.

 

What will be happening at the HR Directors Business Summit?

The unconference will consist of three phases held over the two days of the Summit.

The unconference discussion sessions will all be held on the second day of the unconference.  There will be two sets of concurrent sessions, each consisting of about a dozen people, taking place at the same time as the workshops, conference sessions and masterclasses in the main conference.

The unconference will then close with a plenary panel debate back in the main conference, summarising the discussions that have taken place and enabling further conversation about some of the key themes emerging in the unconference sessions.  We will also be using Twitter to encourage further input into these discussions from people not at the conference.

On the first day, the focus will be on creating the grid – the matrix detailing the topics that will be discussed on the second day.  We will be asking delegates to suggest topics and to sponsor sessions to discuss these.

Topics can relate to a particular conference session or a point raised by a speaker in the conference, a key theme emerging from a couple of different conference sessions, or anything else.

Sponsors do not need to be experts in these areas, it may be that they simply want to know more about these topics from other delegates.  It is therefore up to each sponsor as to how they want to run the session, though we suggest that if they do want to make an input before the start of a discussion, that this should last for no more than five to ten minutes.  However, the sponsor may choose simply to explain why they think the topic is important, and to ask a question to kick the conversation off.  Whatever role the sponsor decides to take, their main job will be to facilitate the conversation to maximise participants’ learning and if possible and appropriate, to generate some conclusions from the conversation.

 

Why should I attend one of the unconference sessions (as sponsor or participant)?

The HR Directors Business Summit is incorporating unconferencing into this year’s conference as a direct response to an increasing desire for more involvement and interaction.  To date, this has been encouraged by taking questions at the end of each speaker’s presentation and through one-to-one meetings with suppliers, networking time at breaks, and social events in the evening.  However, the new unconference sessions will provide the first real opportunity for a much higher proportion of delegates to participate in the main flow of conversation at the summit.

There is an excellent line-up of speakers in the main conference and missing one of the speaker’s presentations to attend an unconference session may mean that you learn about less.  However having the opportunity to discuss key points from one or more of the sessions with other delegates should help you internalise and remember your learnings about these topics better – helping you to maximise the benefits you have received from the sessions you have attended.

Unconferencing is something you can do within your organisations as well and the sessions at the HR Directors Business Summit will provide you will an opportunity to explore the unconferencing approach and then potentially take this back into your own organisation.

 

Technorati Tags: HR Directors Business Summit,#hrevent,conference,unconference,barcamp,social,learning,media

 

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Youth Unemployment, #CIPD11 and #ConnectingHR

 

   My favourite post from CIPD11 was probably this one from Graham Salisbury: Executive Pay: The Subject Which Must Not Be Named in which Graham questions the absence of discussion on today’s absurd levels of executive reward and obscene differentials between the highest and lowest paid in UK society from the CIPD conference’s agenda (possibly due to the CIPD’s own differentials perhaps?).

But for me, the other even bigger issue that was missing from the conference, not unlinked to the above is the truly dreadful level of youth unemployment which reached 1 million yesterday.  And it doesn’t look like things are going to get any better – the CIPD’s labour market outlook suggests that employers are continuing to hedge their bets on all employment related decisions leading to a slow, painful contraction in the jobs market.  It’s even leading to concern about creating a permanent underclass excluded from the prospect of employment.

This also came up at a session organised by Demos (and supported by the CIPD) on youth mobility which I attended yesterday morning (you can see my write up of this at Social Advantage).

Well even if the CIPD aren’t going to do anything about (though they have published some useful insights youth employment here), ConnectingHR will!  Following the community’s focus on graduate unemployment at our last unconference, we’re now planning a more serious intervention to help a number of grads get jobs, or at least get more prepared to be part of the workforce,  My own hope for this is that these largely individual actions will lead to some great community-wide conclusions, and we can perhaps put together our first ‘research’ report half-way through next year – and therefore have an even bigger impact outside of the community as well.

If you want to know (or do) more, particularly if you’re in London / the UK, check out connectinghr.org over the next few days, and join us there as a member too.

 

Picture credit: The Telegraph

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#CHRU3 #ConnectingHR Unconference: Human-Centric Recruiting

 

    I skipped most of our unconference yesterday – partly because I had a couple of meetings and really wanted to attend the Workplace Trends conference too.  And partly because ConnectingHR is a community, and the community is now running the unconferences, which is the way it should be.  This is still one of my favourite events, but I don’t have to be there now.

But I do still feel a strong attachment to the event (and even more so the community) so I wanted to blog something about it, even though I wasn’t there.  I asked a few people about what the main themes, issues, conclusions, agreements had been, and got a few snippets about different things, but nothing that bloggable.  Martin Couzins summed it up well – blogging from unconferences is really difficult because the whole day is so random and varied (that’s why I did a storify from HREvolution a few weeks back).

But the session that got people’s greatest engagement was clearly the one where the Spring brought in graduates who’d be unemployed for the last year to talk about their experience at the sharp end of the HR / Recruiting stick.  You can see Martin’s interview with one of them here.  The issue was clearly that recruiting is a bit of a one-way deal.  HR gets to sit back, choose who it wants, treat candidates as it wants to, and unless the get a job, the grads don’t get much back in return – certainly very little feedback which might actually help them get a job elsewhere.

Then there was a group session later on suggesting that we need for H for Human in the term HR (also see the picture from the tablecloth used during the world cafe session).  Michael Carty has blogged on this here.  That’s the key for me – it’s about respect and mutuality, and it applies across the whole area of HR, not just recruitment.

 

Human-Centric Workplace Design

It’s even largely what we were talking about at Workforce Trends, though I prefer human-centric to user-centric design.

It was obviously another good day, and in a way I regret attending Workplace Trends – don’t get me wrong: there was lots of great insight there, but there’s only so much a traditional conference format can achieve.

The good news is that we’re looking at getting Workplace, HR plus IT, OD, Communication and all the other professional functions together for an unconference next year – what this – and that – space.

 

Human-Centric HR Technology

Also look at for a post on human-centric use of HR technology, supporting the HR Technology Europe conference on 2nd and 3rd November.

 

Technorati Tags: HR,ConnectingHR,unconfernce,CHRU3,human,humanity,graduate,recruitment

 

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What’s the HR Buzz?

 

    You may have received a new email from Keith Robinson (founder of Personnel Today) called HR Buzz.  This is an update on the best HR related content from the web and is provided in partnership with Connecting HR.  Apologies if you’ve received update this and you don’t want it (you are given the option to unsubscribe) but I hope you will as there’s plenty of good information in there – including

• Connecting HR
• Points of interest
• HR talk
• Social HR
• Engagement
• Learning in action
• The workplace
• Upcoming events
• HR technology
• HR debates to follow
• The legal links
• Management and leadership
• Slideshows to share.

 

If you’ve not received the first update, you can request a subscription here.

 

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More unconference loviness

 

  Well, we did it again!  CHRU-2 was just as successful as CHRU-1, and just as lovey (not just lovely) as HRevolution.

So I’ve been been thinking further about the success of these events.  And I still think the ‘getting the presentations out of the way’ that I referred to in my last post is a big part of what’s going on.

But I’ve also been thinking that there is something else important that I missed out in my earlier post – the events’ success is also (in fact is mainly) about the people who attended them.  And this is partly about a lot of the people knowing each other before the event (even if many have only connected virtually but never met IRL before – and there is always something special in that first face-to-face connection).

But I think it is also just about the type of people who are using social media, which we used to promote the event – and their understanding of the value of social learning. This is important firstly because this is the direction of HR evolution.  And secondly because it means these people are more open to the potential of connection.  So you get these people together and you’re almost bound to have a great time.

For other un- and conferences copying our success, or organisations wanting to create the same passion and love between their employees there are maybe a few lessons to learn as well.

I suppose the first of these has to be about getting more employees using social media as this often opens a window on a new way of behaving.

But I also think there’s more too it than this.  The people who attended both HRevolution and CHRU use social media because they’re social people (as in people who understand the benefit of relationships, not just of socialising - though there was plenty of that going on too), they’re not social people because they use social media.

So the secret isn’t really about getting people to use social media, but getting people to understand how to be more social (again, in its relationship sense) – or just recruiting those who are.

For example Liz Gottung talked about recruiting from GE and other ‘best practice’ HR organisations. I think she’d do better looking at the people who gathered at the Georgia Tech in Atlanta and more recently in the Spring.  These to me are the people who are going to be driving the future of (a more social) HR.

 

Technorati Tags: Love,passion,unconference,social,media,HR

 

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CHRU - 2

 

Today was the second time we’ve run CHRU, Connecting HR’s Unconference.

Unlike last time, when I did a fair amount of the design, all of the shopping and most of the delivery, this time I chose to focus on participation, which made it a very different, but just as enjoyable, experience.

 

 

This was partly because I wanted to focus on the social connecting that the unconference is designed to be about.  And also because Connecting HR is designed to be a community, not just a series of events, and it won’t be that as long as these remain a Gareth and Jon show.

 

I’ll post more shortly, but will note that one of the things I really liked about it was our artist, Tim Caswell’s summary of the aura we’d created in the room:

 

 

I certainly felt it there.

 

Thanks so much to everyone who attended the event.  I love y’all:

• Vic Okezie, Founder, Crexia (Social HR Conferences)
  Blog: http://www.crexia.com/blog
  Twitter handle: @vicokezie

  ---

• Peter Hros, HRbeginner, HRbeginner
  Blog: http://hrbeginner.blogspot.com
  Twitter handle: HRbeginner

  ---

• Charlie Duff, Editor, HRzone.co.uk
  Twitter handle: charlie_elise

  ---

• Karl Hills, Digital Marketing Executive, CIPD
  Blog: http://www.cipd.co.uk/blogs
  Twitter handle: @k4rlhills @CIPD

  ---

• Natalia Alexandrou, Digital Marketing Executive, CIPD
  Blog: http://www.cipd.co.uk/blogs
  Twitter handle: @NAlexandrou @CIPD

  ---

• Ella Overshott, Fucntion Leader, CFS

  ---

• Sara Wyke, HR Generalist, Looking for ...
  Twitter handle: @TeenyTinyBean

  ---

• Ailsa Suttie, Group HR Director, The Panther Group
  Twitter handle: Ailsa Suttie

  ---

• Mark White, Account Manager, RW3 CultureWizard
  Blog: http://rw-3.com/blog

  ---

• Charlene Solomon, EVP, RW3 CultureWizard
  Blog: http://rw-3.com/blog

  ---

• Michael Schell, CEO, RW3 CultureWizard
  Blog: http://rw-3.com/blog

  ---

• Anne Marie McEwan McEwan, Founder, The Smart Work Company Ltd
  Blog: http://www.thesmartworkcompany.com
  Twitter handle: drmcewan

  ---

• Robert Jones, Head of Global Learning & Development, Mothercare plc
  Blog: http://mastersorbust.wordpress.com
  Twitter handle: robjones_tring

  ---

• charlotte glynn, Head of People , JustGiving

  ---

• Hilary Jeanes, Director, PurpleLine Consulting Limited

  ---

• Andrea Martin, OH Manager, Health In Action

  ---

• Sukhvinder Pabial, L&D Business Partner, LBi Ltd
  Twitter handle: @naturalgrump

  ---

• Noel O'Reilly, Editor, XpertHR
  Blog: http://www.xperthr.co.uk/blogs/employment-intelligence/
  Twitter handle: @noeloreilly

  ---

• Ben Betts, Managing Director, HT2
  Blog: http://www.ht2.co.uk/ben
  Twitter handle: bbetts

  ---

• Jonathan Richards, Managing Director, breatheHR
  Blog: http://jonathanrichards.blogspot.com
  Twitter handle: breatheHR

  ---

• Klothilde Ganzer, HR Consultant, Goodwille Ltd
  Twitter handle: @kganzer

  ---

• Patsy Mills, HR Adviser, Wellcome Trust

  ---

• Neil Usher, General Manager - Group Property, Rio Tinto
  Blog: http://theatreacle.posterous.com/
  Twitter handle: @Theatreacle

  ---

• Michael Silverman, Director, Silverman Research
  Twitter handle: mikepinions

  ---

• Lynne Donaldson, Associate Consultant, LINK Associates International
  Twitter handle: lindonaldson

  ---

• Will Cleare, HR Business Partner, figleaves.com
  Twitter handle: willcleare

  ---

• Alexandra Protts, Team Leader, NPIA

  ---

• Gavin Jones, Head of Immigration, Blake Lapthorn
  Twitter handle: #gpjoneslaw

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• Cathy Webster, Head of HR, GSM Association

  ---

• Anthony Allinson, Head of Operations, Thomson Reuters (GRC)
  Twitter handle: @allinsona

  ---

• Emily Stone, Account Director, Thomsons Online Benefits
  Blog: http://emilymarchant.wordpress.com/
  Twitter handle: em_stone

  ---

• Sara Gilmore, Conference Manager, CIPD Enterprises Ltd

  ---

• Holly St Clair Moor, Conference Research Excutive, CIPD Enterprises Ltd

  ---

• Karen Wise, Owner, Karen Wise Consulting Ltd
  Blog: http://www.karenwise.wordpress.co.uk
  Twitter handle: karenwise

  ---

• Alison Chisnell, Group HR Director, Informa Business Information

  ---

• Steve Bridger, Builder of Bridges / Digital Communities Manager, Consultant / CIPD
  Blog: http://www.stevebridger.com
  Twitter handle: stevebridger

  ---

• Martin Couzins, User development editor , XpertHR
  Blog: http://www.itsdevelopmental.com
  Twitter handle: @martincouzins

  ---

• Stephen Gardener, CTO, NoddlePod AS
  Blog: http://noddlesoft.com/blog

  ---

• Ollie Gardener, CEO, NoddlePod AS
  Blog: http://noddlesoft.com/blog
  Twitter handle: @olliegardener

  ---

• Katie Davis, HR Advisor, WhiteConcierge
  Twitter handle: HRHopeful

  ---

• Jose Franca, Learning & OD, Jose Franca
  Blog: http://www.josefranca.com/blog/
  Twitter handle: @MrAirmiles

  ---

• Beth Mayes, Writer, HKB Social
  Twitter handle: @kbmayes

  ---

• Claire Walsh, Partner, Learning Consultancy Partnership
  Blog: http://lcp.org.uk/blog
  Twitter handle: clairewalshlcp

  ---

• James Mayes, Founding Director, Tweetjobs
  Twitter handle: http://twitter.com/james_mayes

  ---

• Andrew Holdaway, HR Consultant, Pivotal HR
  Blog: http://www.pivotalhr.co.uk
  Twitter handle: HRtoSocialCare

  ---

• Flora Marriott, Learning & Development Manager, Yell Adworks
  Twitter handle: @FloraMarriott

  ---

• Kelly Dern, Client Executive, ETS
  Blog: http://www.etsplc.com/blog
  Twitter handle: kellydern

  ---

• Ben Egan, Communications Manager, ETS
  Blog: http://www.etsplc.com/blog

  ---

• Dominic Wake, Director, ETS
  Blog: http://www.etsplc.com/blog
  Twitter handle: @domwake

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• Jonathan Wilson, Consultant, Humap UK

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• Kay Phelps, Director, PRinHR
  Blog: http://PRinHR.co.uk/whatweresaying
  Twitter handle: PRforHR

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• Christine Livingston, Director, Livingston Consulting
  Blog: http://www.adifferentkindofwork.com
  Twitter handle: coblyn

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• Helen Goss, Partner, Boyes Turner
  Twitter handle: twitter.com/boyesturner

  ---

• Sarah Matthews, CEO, SFM Consulting
  Blog: http://www.sfmconsulting.co.uk/blog
  Twitter handle: @sarahfmatthews

  ---

• Kevin Ball, Managing Director, West
  Blog: www.west-writing.com/people-matters
  Twitter handle: @kevinjball

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• Ainsley McLeod, Business Development Manager, ASK Europe
  Blog: http://www.dontcompromise.askeurope.com/
  Twitter handle: @dontcompromise

  ---

• Doug Shaw, Owner, What Goes Around Limited
  Blog: http://stopdoingdumbthingstocustomers.com/blog/
  Twitter handle: @dougshaw1

 

 

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HR Blog Carnivals to read–and enter

 

  With CHRU just days away, we’re hosting a special pre-unconference blog carnival at connectinghr.org.  Do take a look.

 

The next HR carnival will be held at Upstart HR on May 18th and will be all about HRevolution.  Which of my posts from there do you think I should submit?

• Love in HR (and at #HRevolution)
• What will HR’s evolution be? Liz Gottung at Kimberly Clark
• #HREvolution, Nobscot and Exit Interviews
• Why I’m attending #HREvolution.

 

Then on May 25th, I’ll be hosting the next regular carnival here.  I did think about making this one all about CHRU, but since we have a smaller number of people attending this event than at HRevolution (though a bigger attendance in proportion to the size of our countries) and given that most people who normally participate in the carnivals are from the US, I don’t think that would work. 

But both events are ultimately about connection and I thought it’d be fun to focus on this.  So I’m going to be looking for blogs about or at least mentioning other bloggers (not the author of the post!) for my carnival.

If you want to submit a post you can do so by emailing me at info [at] strategic [dash] hcm [dot] com.

 

Technorati Tags: HR,blog,carnival,bloggers,ConnectingHR,HRevolution,May,2011

 

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One week to #CHRU-2

 

  So I mentioned that I’ve also got the second Connecting HR unconference (#CHRU) coming up.  Like HR Evolution, this should also be a really great event.

Take a look at the comments we had back after our first unconference if you don’t believe me:

 

“As an event it was nutritional, raw, the venue was stunningly basic almost brutal, the energy was maintained. There was progress, information exchange, connection and energy for the next opportunities to develop.

The ConnectingHR unconference I think exceeded everyone’s expectations. Informed, opinionated and still open minded people wanting to communicate and share the energy and passion to get good things done. I came back with a head full of things to think about and a longer list of thoughts to think about after that.”

Sarah Foster, Chief People Officer, Talis Information Ltd

 

“What played out at the ConnectingHR Unconference was nothing short of inspiring! The creative energy was palpable and what drove it was that every single (un)delegate was there for the same reason – to make a positive difference to others. I’d never experienced that kind of energy instantly ignite from a room full of strangers.

What did I come away with from the day? Well certainly no goody bags with pens, post-its and stress balls (thank god). More importantly what I did come away with was a head buzzing with potential and full of ideas for what I could bring back to the Business. The 3 things that stuck with from the day were community, collaboration and social media and the part all play in facilitating a more engaged workforce.”

Will Claire, HR Business Partner, figleaves.com

 

“I must admit for the first 10 minutes or so I wondered whether it was the maddest thing I had ever done!  It was a real revelation though to see how an Unconference can work, how engaged and passionate the participants all were. What an amazing day it was! “

Alison Chisnell, Group HR Director, Informa Publishing

 

“As a result of the ConnectinghHR un-conference during the course of this week I have taken some action which has created change and energy across my organisation. It’s only a small change just now but it will grow and develop and people are excited by it, what’s more it was free! The catalyst for it was #CHRU and I am so glad I went.”

Ailsa Suttie, Group HR Director, Panther Group

 

Unlike our previous unconference, I’m not going to be facilitating – we’ve got plenty of other skilled people attending, and it’s important for the sake of the community that anyone who wants to do so gets the chance to participate in the design, organisation and facilitation of our events.

I’d therefore like to thank the skilled team who have been working with me and Gareth to design this unconference, and will be facilitating it this time around:

• Ailsa Suttie who I’ve just mentioned above
• Doug Shaw
• Klothilde Ganzer
• Charlie Duff

 

You can still book for the unconference at eventbrite.

And whether you’ll be attending or not, you’re welcome to submit a recent blog post for our special pre-#CHRU blog carnival that’ll we host at connectinghr.org next Tuesday.  Just tweet or DM @connectinghr with a link to the post, or you can email me – see my details below.

 

PS Do you like our new logo? (I’m not sure myself, Gareth!).

 

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Connecting HR Unconference (#CHRU 2)

 

  At the end of my HR 2.0 webinar, I mentioned that a good example of the sort of focus on community I’d been discussing is Connecting HR.

As with the various examples I described, there’s a technology focus to this community, particularly in our new social site at connectinghr.org, replacing our previous site and the Yammer group we’d been using.

And there’s the face to face side with our series of tweet-ups, and now our second unconference which will be held on 5th May.  If you can get to London that day it’ll be an event well worth attending.

See my previous posts on Connecting HR / the 1st unconference:

• #CHRU
• All Connecting HR posts.

 

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Unconferencing at Conferences

 

   I hope you enjoyed my notes on TRU London last week.  If you did, you really should think about joining us at our second Connecting HR unconference in London on 5th May.

The only limitation of these events to me is that we’re largely focusing on people using social media.  Not that the agendas are overly social in focus, but our promotion tends to be mainly (not totally) through the use of blogs and twitter etc.

There’s some logic – as well as efficiency – in this.  The people who appreciate the social learning context of an unconference will generally appreciate the same thing from social media.  So there is some degree of overlap between the people who use social media and those who will most naturally appreciate an unconference.

But at the current stage of adoption, the use of social media as our main promotional tool means most HR and Recruiting people simply don’t get to hear about what we’re doing.  Many of whom would, I’m sure, value the unconference experience.

So I’m really pleased that after our hugely successful tweet-up this year, next year’s HR Directors Business Summit is going to include an unconference stream.  Take a look at the developing programme, and I’ll provide more details towards the end of this year.

 

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Connecting HR drinks

 

My friends at Connecting HR are meeting for some Christmas drinks tomorrow night – unfortunately I won’t be able to be with them.

But this is what I imagine them doing:

Have fun everyone!

 

Video credit: Elfyourself

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More on social influencers – online mavens and connectors

 

  I’ve been posting on Social Advantage about Josh Bernoff’s book, Empowered, triggered by a incident with the Trainline, discussed on Twitter last week.  In the follow-up post I noted that Bernoff’s points about mass connectors and mavens should apply to employees as well:

The first is the idea of mass online influencers who help spread trends through the web. These consist of two groups (see picture) based on Malcolm Gladwell’s analysis from ‘Tipping Point’ – mass connectors who know a wide variety of other people through social networks (huge Twitter followings, lots of Facebook friends etc), and mass mavens - experts and post and comment on particular topics. [This seems to correspond in part to Chris Brogan’s differentiation of social from new media.]

Mass connectors are a small proportion of all online users but account for 80% of all ‘influence impressions’ about products and services. Mass mavens are a similarly small proportion of online users and account for 80% of all influence posts. Exactly what these proportions are depends on the product or service in question. The reason I make this point here is that I think the same analysis could be made for employees too – but not many organisations I know consider these mass connectors and mavens within their talent groups!

 

But there’s something else that’s interesting here too.  Bernoff suggests that 11 million people from the US online population are mass connectors and 24 million are mass mavens.  7 mission people are in the overlap between the two (as shown in the Venn diagramme).

Ie Bernoff suggests there are many more online mavens (bloggers and commenters) than there are online connectors (social networking site users).  And once you take out the overlap, there are actually very few (well, a few million) online connectors who aren’t also bloggers.

What I find interesting in this, related to my previous posts on social influencers in HR, is that Bernoff’s findings are the direct opposite of what I’m seeing in the (UK) HR social media space where there’s now a fairly sizeable number of HR practitioners on Twitter and in other social spaces (eg the Connecting HR Yammer group) but a lower if still substantial number of bloggers.  I think Rick was probably the last of the high profile UK HR bloggers to make the move onto Twitter so we’re all on there now. In fact with the exception of my Connecting HR activities I’m probably the most maven vs connector-like of the UK HR social media using group (go on, comment on this post and prove me wrong!).

I guess this is a consequence of all being part of a professional community (in the broadest sense) where there is a clear common interest and some fairly easy ways to connect with each other.  Obviously a consumer of a particular organisation’s products is a lot less well connected with other consumers, so is more naturally going to turn to blogging than tweeting.

But I think it supports the points I’ve been making previously about social influencers in HR not just being HR bloggers, but people who are using social media in its broader sense to help connect, engage and converse (being connectors vs mavens).

Comments?

 

Picture credit: http://code.google.com/apis/chart/docs/making_charts.html

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Pay transparency– in the news (and on cHRchat)

 

   Sir David Walker never actually suggested publishing details on each individual bankers’ pay, fearing that this would jeopardise their privacy (ah, poor dears!).  And he’s since pulled back from his milder suggestion that banks publish ‘bands’ showing the pay and bonuses of all employees earning over £1m while hiding individual employees’ names.  It seems this can’t be done unless all countries do the same thing (which was never going to happen anyway).

But the topic of pay transparency has not gone away.

 

Hutton Review (and the CIPD)

Today’s interim report from the Hutton Fair Pay Review (which I’m still reading) suggests that no civil servant should get paid more than twenty times the lowest paid worker in that organisation.

As the name of the review suggests, this focuses on fairness.  But most of the reporting of the review, if not so much the review itself, seems to interpret fairness as showing tax payers that their investments are being protected, and that the 20,000 public servants who earn more than £117k per year (including heads of Universities on £200k and CEOs of NHS trusts on £150k) deserve their salaries.  This is about managing perception – about ensuring everyone seems to be sharing the effects of austerity.  And it’s why Hutton recommends setting principles and greater transparency in what people get paid.

I’m more interested in the effect of internal pay differentials.  I think John Humphrys got it right on the Today programme this morning (as he usually does), quoting Peter Drucker’s concerns that differentials over 20 x can lead to resentment, falling morale and could become socially corrosive.

I think socially corrosive organisations is exactly what we’ve got – in the private as well as the public sector, and steep pay differentials have had their role to play in this.

But the issue is particularly significant in the public sector – particularly because, as I was discussing with Bruce Warman at the Personnel Today Awards last night, the ‘profit motive’ doesn’t really exist there.   These organisations aren’t going to go to the wall, so the role of the strategist (part of the role of a business leader) is a less fundamental one.  This means that there’s less of a need for high differentials than there is in the private sector.

And the issue is even more significant in the voluntary sector.  Here, it’s about sense of mission, rather than high pay, being even more of a focus (or should be being more of a focus) than high pay.  That’s why Jackie Orme is getting some rightly deserved stick (eg from Donald Clark: 1 and 2) for her £400k salary at the CIPD.

But for me, the whole debate has echoes of Denise Kingsmill’s Accounting for People review.  Kingsmill was focused on providing information on human capital for investors, whereas in truth, the people who really need better information on HCM are business leaders.

Same again here.  I personally believe Hutton’s suggestions are entirely reasonable.  But they also miss the point.  The real need is to educate remuneration committee members and other business leaders, as well as compensation consultants and their like about the impact of such a big divide.

It’s why my bigger worry about Orme’s salary is how are the CIPD going to support Hutton’s proposals when they must have a pay differential of around 20x themselves.

 

cHRchat

Anyway, if you’re interested in pay transparency we’ll be talking about this during #cHRchat on Twitter tonight (7.00pm GMT).  I’m not going to pretend that we’ve deliberately set out to be responsive to current topics – it’s just that, by accident, the subject came up in a tweet of mine during last week’s chat:

1:41 pm	joningham:	Big opportunities throughout HR for more social (thinking) approaches eg pay transparency in Reward #chrchat
1:43 pm	dougshaw1:	RT @joningham: Big opportunities throughout HR for more social (thinking) approaches eg pay transparency in Reward #chrchat >like it yes pls
1:43 pm	ALISONCHISNELL:	RT @joningham: Big opportunities throughout HR for more social (thinking) approaches eg pay transparency in Reward - Yikes no!! #cHRchat
1:45 pm	joningham:	AlisonChisnell Why not? (if the culture's right) RT @joningham: Big opportunities eg pay transparency - Yikes no!! #cHRchat
1:46 pm	ALISONCHISNELL:	@joningham depends what you mean by transparent but if you mean everyone sees everybody elses then would be a nightmare #cHRchat
1:48 pm	joningham:	Don't see why - just different (& more social!) RT@AlisonChisnell @joningham if you mean everyone sees everybodys then nightmare #cHRchat
1:50 pm	ALISONCHISNELL:	@joningham Large org, legacy issues, people chage roles...we don't operate a fixed pay structure enables us to be pragmatic #cHRchat
1:51 pm	ALISONCHISNELL:	@joningham would lead to massive increase in salary benchmarking requests & deep unhappiness, Union would have field day. More? #cHRchat
1:54 pm	gmcglyne:	@alisonchisnell i know a company that had it's payroll posted online - the issues were re discrepancies that COULD be justified #chrchat
1:54 pm	ALISONCHISNELL:	@joningham Just not keen. Would work with very structured pay scales and progression but not in our org. #cHRchat
1:57 pm	ALISONCHISNELL:	@gmcglyne brave move, that's for sure. We have made so many acquisitions over the years we real mix of legacy & new arrangements #cHRchat
1:58 pm	gmcglyne:	@ALISONCHISNELL not brave - disgruntled employee posted it #chrchat
1:58 pm	ALISONCHISNELL:	@gmcglyne oh blimey! Cat, pigeons....! #cHRchat
2:04 pm	olliegardener:	RT @ALISONCHISNELL @joningham Looking for salary transparancy: http://ow.ly/3eRht All norwegians' salaries online. #chrchat
2:05 pm	garelaos:	@ALISONCHISNELL @joningham Pay transparency can work - check out Semco. #chrchat
2:05 pm	joningham:	RT @olliegardener: RT @ALISONCHISNELL @joningham Looking for salary transparancy: http://ow.ly/3eRht All norwegians' salaries online. #chrchat
2:06 pm	joningham:	Would love someone to do a #chrchat on pay transparency sometime....
2:06 pm	olliegardener:	@ALISONCHISNELL @joningham PS: as an entrepreneur, mine is decisively borning :) #chrchat
2:08 pm	garelaos:	@joningham How about i do the one on pay transparency? #chrchat
2:08 pm	dougshaw1:	RT @joningham: Would love someone to do a #chrchat on pay transparency sometime....me too wrote about that recently http://bit.ly/dMsG9L
2:09 pm	joningham:	Up to you but I'd be on for it - might engage @thehrd back again too? RT @garelaos How about i do the one on pay transparency? #chrchat
2:12 pm	garelaos:	@AlisonChisnell @joningham @thehrd i find pay transparency is only a problem when there are differences that cant be justified! #chrchat
2:14 pm	joningham:	Can you be totally social unless you do? If not, there's always going to be something in the way. #paytransparency #chrchat
2:16 pm	joningham:	Lynda Gratton on pay transparency http://bit.ly/gYelyM #socialbusiness #chrchat (probably enough till next week)
4:07 pm	AilsaSuttie:	@garelaos would interest me! #chrchat

 

Join us if you can. 

 

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Unconferences: Social vs Structure

 

   We’re still getting lots of great feedback on last week’s Connecting HR unconference (CHRU).  However, I want to respond to the small amount of criticism we received about there being too much structure and organisation.

I don’t mind criticism (not much that more than most other people anyway), but I think it’s important people associated with Connecting HR, and other related unconferences, understand why we did what we did.

I do completely discount the point that we needed structure because our attendees are from HR (“HR folk need a bit more structure and order than the rest of the social media population").  I’m not sure if HR people do need structure, but I’m sure the people who attended our unconference don’t.  In any case, we included people from recruitment, learning, legal and other areas, not just core HR.

And actually, I don’t really believe the amount of structure we used was that high.  Developing the grid was a facilitated process but it was all over with fairly quickly.  And I don’t believe this process could have completed before the event while providing the same level of benefits (not this time around anyway).

The completed grid provided an agenda, but it was still completely up to individual people which sessions they went to, and what they discussed when they were there.

And I don’t believe believe the presentations we included were a problem – all were just 6 minute Pecha Kucha’s and to me, simply one way of injecting some variety into the formats to provide additional interest to people.  The key point is that we’re not against slides, just the mind numbing way they’re used in lots of traditional conferences.

But I challenge the criticism on a deeper level too.  To me, a lot of this goes back to what we’re trying to do.

Bill Boorman defines an unconference as:

“An unconference is an event that has no fixed structure and only two rules, no power point and no presentations.”

 .

If that’s his / Andy’s definition then I can see where they’re coming from.  But this isn’t the definition I would use.

My definition of an unconference would be something linked to social learning – about it providing an environment designed for exchanging insights between people rather than cascading knowledge down from the speaker to attendees.  Even more than this, it would be something about allowing people to connect and develop relationships in order to engage in meaningful conversation.  Something about understanding that if the relationships are there, the rest will follow.

Structure, powerpoint and presentations are immaterial.  We included them in the day because we felt that they would help with the connecting that we wanted to take place.  But if someone thinks they can create the same level of connection without this level of structure then fine.

But simply taking away structure doesn’t create relationships.  Bill’s TRUs are interesting events, and I really enjoyed the one that I acted as track leader at.  And I connected with plenty of people too.  But the fact that there was a commercial purpose, sponsors, track leaders, pre-defined sessions, and yes, even a certain lack of organisation, detracted from what I felt could have been achieved.

Don’t get me wrong, Bill deserves heaps of praise for trying something new – and I’d much rather attend a TRU event than many, though not all, traditional conferences, but my sort of unconference it’s not.

The key for me is a focus on ‘social’ (ie relationships), not an absence of structure.  And social is what everyone seems to agree that CHRU well and truly was.

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More on social influencers

 

One of the things we talked about at the Connecting HR unconference was who are the social influencers? – the people who are influencing UK HR through social means in the new social world, rather than just through hierarchical power, as in the traditional structures of the present but maybe soon, the past.

We didn’t get that many more names, so I’m not sure how much publicity we can get for this list, but I thought it triggered some interesting conversations.

Here are the people receiving more than three votes each:

@billboorman

@mjcarty

@mervyndinnen

@charlie_elise

@thehrd

@joningham

@garelaos

@lesanto

@daznewman

@abisignorelli

@flipchartft

Also receiving votes were:

• @annayoshica
• @barrysampson
• @c4lpt
• @ffcburt
• @grahamsalisbury
• @kevinjball
• @mattalder
• @ncreswell
• @rapidbi
• @steve bridger

 

I actually don’t think it matters that much who these people are, but hopefully the list resonates with you in terms of what we mean by social influence?

I do agree with @alanwhitford though, that we shouldn’t discount those people working at the top of organisations who often have social influence too:

 

I’d have also liked to have seen more people who are influencing socially (through relationships vs heirarchy) but not through social media.

It’s also interesting that most of the people on this list were actually at the unconference, and I suppose we’re always going to be most influenced by the people we’re close to at any particularly point in time.  But it’s also because a lot of these influencers decided that they needed to attend the unconference – they in particular understood the value it would provide.

So the list needs more work (we really need to conduct a social network analysis to understand it fully), but I still think it’s a better indication of where influence really lies today than the other list in HR Magazine!

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Who else would you suggest needs to be added to the list?

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