What will HR’s evolution be? Liz Gottung at Kimberly Clark

 

  We’re starting today’s unconference with Liz Gottung, CHRO at Kimberly Clark.

Liz has emphasised that her HR function isn’t that well developed yet, but is on a fast journey.  However, I think they’re doing a lot of things very well – their emerging use of social media for example.  And I think they’ve got a great ambition: to make HR a ‘go to’ function.

This is about making HR a function that people will want to develop their careers.  Liz said she’s love to see someone being groomed for CEO taking on her job for a couple of years.  And some of this is already happening, at least on a temporary basis – so Liz has brought in a marketing person to support employer branding, and an engineering person to support lean HR for example.

I’m still not sure about Kimberly Clark’s vision for HR however.  Liz talked about things dying a quick death if they’re seen as an HR project.  And also the need to have ‘HR’ projects sponsored by someone from the business – so their CFO sponsored their new performance system, and they’re also looking for a business leader for their new global Workday implementation.

Now this may just be a reflection of Kimberly Clark HR being on a journey, but I worry it’s more than that as well.  I certainly talk to a lot of companies which do see this sort of embedded, and even slightly hidden, version of HR as the function’s future.

I hope it’s not.  HR’s evolution, to me, has got to include making HR proud of its own capability and contribution.  We’ve got to help our businesses understand that HR projects are things that are important, and can be led effectively by HR leaders too.  Until that happens, we’re always going to struggle to maximise our contribution.

 

Given the name of this unconference (HRevolution), I suspect the vision (or the different visions) of HR may be something we return back to several times during the course of the day.  I’ll let you know if so.

 

Technorati Tags: Liz Gottung,CHRO,Kimberly Clark,HRevolution,evolution,vision,HR,unconference

 

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#HREvolution, Nobscot and Exit Interviews

 

  I’ve posted several times here that, even though I strongly support their use, engagement surveys should only ever be seen as part of the picture.

Firstly, engagement is only one part of the broader contribution of human and social capital that employees can tell their employer about.

Secondly, there are a variety of ways in which organisations can find out about engagement and other human capital issues from their employees.  One key opportunity for many organisations is to conduct better exit interviews, so I was very pleased to speak recently with Beth N Carvin, CEO at Nobscot which provides web based exit interviews and is sponsoring my travel to attend HREvolution in Atlanta this week.

Beth explained that Nobscot has been built around the idea of automating exit interviews – a space in which there are still few other players and that still provides the basis for Noscot’s flagship product (though the company also provides systems enabling other types of web interview, eg for new hire surveys, and other HR needs, eg supporting mentoring programmes).

The firm’s WebExit system allows departing employees to complete exit interviews over the internet, and provides powerful reporting capabilities for HR managers to look at the reasons leading to these exits at aggregate instead of just individual level.

The other key benefit is providing assurance that the exit interviews will get done, as without the technology, it’s often a bit of a lottery whether an HR manager will or will not get to the person, and the summary of the interview is then often not written down, or is written on a piece of paper which is then filed, but without any central collection of information.

Nobscot have found this functionality is particularly valued by companies focused on employee turnover, and also where employees are spread out over different lcoations.

My only concern about the system was that employees would prefer to meet someone face-to-face, but Beth suggested their experience is that organisations get better data when they use Nobscot’s technology.  Employees often have a hard time saying that their boss is a jerk, or something of that nature, but they will share this when put in front of a computer.  And of course, they’re getting ever more comfortable doing this over time leading to an ongoing increase in the quality of the data.

But some companies still do conduct both face-to-face and web based interviews (either before or after the face-to-face one), it doesn’t need to be an either/or decision.

 

Technorati Tags: Nobscot,web,exit,interview,technology,HRevolution,scholarship

 

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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!).

 

Technorati Tags: Connecting HR,HR,unconference,London,2011,CHRU

 

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Why I’m attending #HREvolution

 

  I’m off to Atlanta on Friday to attend the US HR community’s HRevolution unconference.

Reflecting on it, I’ve come up with these ten reasons why I’m going:

1.   I may not have succeeded in moving out of the UK as yet but I really don’t want to be around for the royal wedding next Friday.  Half-way over the Atlantic seems as good as place as anywhere to ensure I don’t accidentally catch any of it.

2.   Though I’m not a fan of the royal family, I’m definitely up for more bank holidays – the opportunity to get to Atlanta and back to the UK without missing any work days is too good an opportunity to miss (presumably part of the draw behind the strong showing from the UK this year, with Mervyn Dinnen, Gareth Jones and Neil Morrison also flying out to attend).

3.   I’ve never been to Atlanta and was disappointed to miss the HCI conference there recently – here’s another chance to visit.

4.   I love and strongly believe in unconferencing – in all its forms – and very nearly attended the first HRevolution back in 2009.

5.   It was missing this, and then the second one, which directly led to my role in starting up ConnectingHR (see this comment at the bottom of Trish McFarlane’ blog post from back then) and I’d love to form some of link between the two events.

6.   I enjoy speaking at conferences (and even unconferences) but sometimes it’s great just to sit back, listen to others and join in the conversation – particularly at uconferencees (I’m looking forward to doing this at the next ConnectingHR unconference too).

7.   Beth Carvin and her team at Nobscot have very kindly stepped in with a scholarship taking care of my airfare (I’ve got a blog post coming shortly on Nosbscot’s exit interview and mentoring systems).

8.   It’ll be a great chance to catch up with a few people I’ve met before, including Steve Boese, Trish McFarlane, Michael VanDervort, William Tincup, Steve Browne, Kevin Grossman, John Sumser, Amy Wilson, Lois Melbourne, Jennifer McClure, Joan Ginsberg, Laurie Ruettimann, China Gorman, Matt Charney, Craig Fisher and Jessica Miller-Merrell (not a bad list from someone on the other side of the pond!).

9.   And to meet some people that I feel I know (from their blogs or earlier contacts) for the first time, including Shauna Moerke, Ben Eubanks, Josh Letourneau, Benjamin McCall, Eric Winegardner, Paul Herbert, Suzanne Rumsey, Lisa Rosendahl, Mike Haberman, Michael Krupa, Bryon Abramowitz and others.

10.  And to get to know many other people too!  I can’t mention everyone, but I’m particularly looking forward to meeting Crystal Peterson, Katherine Duffy, Jason Lauritsen, Matt Stollak, Joe Gerstandt, April Downing, Dwane Lay, Tanya Barham, Mary Ellen Slayter, Charlie Judy, Nate DaPore, Paul Smith, Mike Carden and Liz Gottung.  I’ll chat to you all at the weekend!

 

You can follow the action from HRevolution at http://thehrevolution.org and on Twitter using the hashtag #hrevolution.

 

I’m back from Atlanta next Monday and have a couple of days in the office, then on Thursday 5th May it’s ConnectingHR’s second unconference too (you can follow the action from this at http://connectinghr.org and on twitter at #chru (c-hr-u, for connecting hr unconference).  What a week!

 

Logo credits: Charlie

Technorati Tags: HRevolution,Atlanta,April,2011,unconference

 

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Social HR / HR 2.0 webinar – slides

 

  I’m a few weeks with this, but I’ve now added the slides from my recent webinar on social HR / HR 2.0 to slideshare .  I’ve included links to all the references I discussed so you can see these in the presentation transcript (you’ll need to click through to Slideshare for this).

 

Social HR 2.0

View more presentations from Jon Ingham

 

My original notes on the webinar are here.

 

And a reminder about my next two webinars:

• Social Business webinar
• HR Innovation webinar

 

Thanks again to Citrix GoToWebinar for supporting me to deliver these.

 

Technorati Tags: HR,business,management,organisation,social,media,web,2.0,innovation,value,webinar

 

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Symposium Training: Successful Change Management

 

  If you’re interested in Dan Heath’s perspectives on Switch you may also be interested to know that I’ll be talking about my, and other, perspectives on making change management work more successfully in this training session for Symposium Events:

 

Successful Change Management

We all know the statistics – well over 50% of change programmes fail to achieve their objectives.  And we do not seem to be getting any better.  In fact change management guru, John Kotter has suggested only 30% of projects are successful – and that is 15 years after the publication of his formative book, Leading Change.

Kotter suggests that making change work requires even more focus on the eight steps in his methodology, but surely, given our lack of progress, that cannot be enough?

Attend this seminar to learn about, and discuss, what really makes change work.  We will review Kotter, then discuss other perspectives and your experiences.  In fact, we will do as much as it is possible to do in one day to stack the odds of your change programme being successful in your favour.

 

Dates:

1 July 2011 – Manchester
12 September 2011 – London

 

You can book here.

 

Technorati Tags: Symposium Events,change,transformation,management,leadership,John Kotter

 

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Benchmark for Business: Dan Heath on Driving Sustainable Change (Switch)

 

  The other speaker at this Benchmark for Business event I’ll be attending next month  is Dan Heath, co-author with his brother Chip of Switch, and Made to Stick.

I’m particularly looking forward to this session as I still spend a lot of my time on change management, and I also think that despite us focusing on this area for over 20 years (I was one of the first people to do so, being in the initial group of 30 people forming Andersen Consulting’s Change Management group at the end of the 1980s) that change management is still very much an emerging art.

For example, I don’t accept John Kotter’s argument that 15 years after his book, Leading Change, that all we need to do is to implement his 8 stage model that much better.  To me, the fact that over 50% of changes still fail is a sign that something else is missing.

Could the remaining need be influencing employees to make a Switch in their behaviour?

 

Driving Sustainable Change

Dan Heath is a Senior Fellow at Duke University's CASE Centre. He is a columnist for Fast Company magazine, and he has taught and consulted with organisations such as Microsoft, Philips, Vanguard, Macy's, USAID, and the American Heart Association.

Previously, Dan worked as a researcher and case writer for Harvard Business School and as a Consultant to the Policy Programs of the Aspen Institute.

In London, Dan will ask the following question: Why is it so hard to make lasting changes in our companies, in our communities, and in our own lives? Illustrated by counter-intuitive psychological and sociological research, he will outline how effective leaders can drive change by influencing employees to make a Switch in their behaviours.

Dan will present the Switch Framework - a clear and simple model for creating sustainable change in your organisation.

 

I’ll be live blogging my thoughts on Switch and the remaining needs in change management live from the event.

Let me know if you’re going to be there as it would be good to discuss your insights on this too (registration is here).

 

 

Technorati Tags: Benchmarkforbusiness,Driving Sustainable Change,Dan Heath,Switch,John Kotter,adaptive leadership,organisation change

 

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Response to Neil Morrison

 

  Despite my enjoyment of the CIPD’s HRD conference (and particularly the sessions on next generation HR leadership) just over a week ago, I still feel the CIPD’s ideas about new generation HR, whilst interesting, miss much of the opportunity for HR / HCM in the future.

I was already thinking about a further post on this topic when I read a couple of posts from Random House’s HRD, Neil Morrison – one which I strongly disagreed with (on his Change Effect blog), and the other which I agreed with just as strongly (on the XpertHR Employment Intelligence blog).

I’ve now written up my own perspectives on HCM as next generation HR / the OD / commercial HR approach that Neil describes and have also had this posted on XpertHR.  In this post, I try to show that, despite Neil’s perceptions, HCM is a people and organisation focused discipline which offers HR more potential for commercial impact than any other approach which doesn’t have human capital at its heart.

Have a read and let me know what you think…

 

Technorati Tags: Neil Morrison,Random House,HR,HCM,OD,XpertHR,commercial HR,human capital

 

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Benchmark for Business: Michael Watkins

 

  This idea about HR leaders adapting their behaviours seems to have been my key theme over the last couple of weeks, and of course it applies to other business leaders too.

So I’m looking forward to attending this session in a couple of weeks time:

 

Driving Sustainable Change

Michael Watkins is the world's leading expert on accelerating transitions. He is author of the international bestseller The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at all Levels, recognised by The Economist as "the on-boarding bible."

Michael's recent book, Your Next Move: The Leader's Guide to Successfully Navigating Major Career Transitions, was published in 2009 by Harvard Business Press.

During his presentations, Michael will explain how the most successful leaders adapt their leadership style as conditions change in their organisations. Whether you are facing the "hidden transitions" that are part of normal growth and downsizing-or coping with a merger, reorganisation, or new leadership. Michael explains the critical relevance of leadership style, and how you can master the art of adaptive and inspirational leadership for ongoing success.

 

Let me know if you’re going to be there as it would be good to discuss your insights on this too (registration is here).

 

Technorati Tags: Benchmarkforbusiness,Driving Sustainable Change,Michael Watkins,adaptive leadership,organisation change

 

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Symposium Training: Performance Management for Strategic Improvement

 

  And I’ll be talking about the opportunities for using this critical but generally poorly implemented HR / business process area at this other session I’m running for Symposium Events:

 

Performance Management for Strategic Improvement

If there was one process in HR, or even across the whole of business, that most organisations would agree is broken, it would surely be employee performance management.  Nothing else we do turns both managers and employees off so much or results in so much wasted time (mainly through poor application and ineffectual conversations but often not helped by bureaucratically heavy designs).

Yet it should not be like this.  Employee performance management should be an absolutely critical business process – providing the main mechanism an organisation has for ensuring that work is performed and objectives are achieved effectively.

Attend this workshop to understand how performance management can be ‘enhanced’ (perhaps better phrased as ‘re-engineered’) to have a true and significant impact on business performance.

 

Dates:

25 May 2011 – Manchester
21 September 2011 – London
29 November 2011 – Birmingham

 

You can book here.

 

Technorati Tags: Symposium Events,Training,performance management

 

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