The conference has now finished and I’m beginning to catch up posting on sessions from the last couple of days. Other than those posts on the Social Learning 2.0 and HR 2.0 sessions, these posts are all on my other – social business / enterprise 2.0 – blog: Social Advantage – see http://blog.social-advantage.com/search/label/e2conf.
There’s also a post on the conference tweet-up over there with photos of some of the wonderful E2.0 people I’ve been meeting.
Here are a few other, absolutely awesome HR 2.0 from (or at least who I’ve met at) the conference:
I’ll also be live blogging this session on Social Learning at 3.45 pm BST / 10.45 am ET today, Thursday 17 June (please join me here via CoverItLive or tweet using hashtag #e2conf49):
Social Learning 2.0 #e2conf-49 Track: Set Your Enterprise 2.0 Strategy
Are “collaboration,” “engagement” and “social” scary disruptive terms in your organizations? Focus your E2.0 bizcase on learning faster. Panelists will speak on their company's use of social media tools: social networks/OCs, internal microsharing, YouTube-like mediasharing, and crowdsourced content to speed knowledge transfer, provide necessary context, and assist people making quick decisions. See the latest research on how Enterprise 2.0 is dramatically more effective than any previous approach to ensuring people collaborate and learn. Hear how EMC, TELUS, and more are using curiosity as a competitive advantage. Learn what you can and should be doing now.
I’ll be blogging this session live from the Enterprise 2.0 conference in Boston at 1.00pm BST / 8.00am ET on Wednesday 16 June (please join me via CoverItLive or tweet using hashtag #e2conf-26):
Strategic Objectives #e2conf-26 Track: Set Your Enterprise 2.0
Strategy HR leaders today are grappling with creating and retaining a cohesive and collaborative culture across an increasingly global workforce. In addition, a quiet revolution has been taking place in the human resources world: powerful cloud technologies with 2.0 collaboration components baked in have made major inroads into the backbone of the enterprise infrastructure. Enterprise 2.0 concepts and technologies offer significant opportunities to help HR teams accelerate organizational performance in the context of aligning with strategic objectives. This session will feature customers that are embracing newer social and collaborative approaches brought about by Enterprise 2.0 concepts.
Moderator - Oliver Marks, Blogger, Sovos Group, ZDNet
Panelists:
Mary Woolf, Director, Learning Technologies, Yum! Brands
Dusty Fisher, Communications and Marketing Online Manage, Exempla
Nick Howe, Vice President, HDS Academy, Hitachi Data Systems
I’ve been having a conversation with Stefano Sedda, HR and Organisation Director at Meridiana airline in Italy, who is also presenting at the Enterprise 2.0 Forum in Milan today, about his views on HR 2.0:
Stefano is currently looking for a solution to implement that would provide a virtual office for everyone in the company, enabling them to connect with each other when-ever and where-ever they want.
This is a need that Stefano has seen previously in his career in the hotel and airline industry – people are often working outside of the physical office and at different times of day.
So for him, 2.0 is a solution for an existing problem – he needs a solution to connect people in work. He’s thought about this for 10 years or more.
The system he’s after will provide information and training on organisational processes. People will be able to find it all. They will share knowledge and collaborate in an interactive way – not for team building but to do work.
It’s not enough to be able to get in touch with each other, they need to be able to work together as well. To be able to reach an agreed view.
Stefano had worked previously with Lotus 123 and liked its group concept and workforce theory and thinks this needs to be put together with 2.0. At the time this type of internet technology wasn’t available. It now needs to be put in this new world as it’s important for people to be able to collaborate together working on organisational processes.
I also asked about how well understood HR 2.0 is in Italy:
Most HR practitioners don’t understand it. They’re more focused on traditional ways of operating.
Most HR software is still focused on information. It’s not enough. Information is everywhere – we now need to be able to work with the information – not just get in touch with it. Move it up to knowledge and wisdom. People need to be able to use it to create unique solutions in the physical world, to achieve organisational goals.
There’s still a great need for more of this understanding.
I think Stefano’s got a well thought through perspective on this issue and hope his presentation and software selection process both go well. My thanks to him for the time and opportunity to speak with him today.
I’ll be posting some more perspectives on HR 2.0 from the Enterprise 2.0 forum and the summit in Boston next week over the next few days.
Something is happening in the field of HR 2.0 (the use of web 2.0 / social media in HR). After the last couple of years being one of a handful of bloggers talking about this, there are now signs that this is going mainstream.
Are we at an inflexion point?
For example, today is the start of the International Forum on Enterprise 2.0 in Milan. I’m not going to be able to go unfortunately, although I’d have loved to do so, particularly having spent a few months working there some years back. And I think what’s particularly noteworthy about this conference is that there’s a pre-conference workshop and then a full workshop stream focused on HR 2.0:
HR 2.0 track
Chairman Emanuele Scotti
Mota Engil: Case Antonio Meireles
Intel Case: Laurie Buczek
CSC Case: Mark Masterson
Intranets - Back to the future: Jane McConnell (NetStrategy - JMC)
Bringing conversations into processes to get the most out of your human capital: Bertrand Duperrin (Nextmodernity)
Voice to the HR: Stefano Sedda (Meridiana), Lynda Tyler-Cagni (Zegna), Diego Piovan (Carige)
From resources to people - Emerging frameworks for leadership, incentivation, performance and learning in an Enterprise 2.0 context: Luca Solari (Università Statale di Milano), Emanuele Scotti (Open Knowledge), Giacomo Mason (Intranet Management), Mario Gastaldi (Brain Team Consulting).
And then next week, it’s the Enterprise 2.0 conference in Boston, which also includes a session on HR 2.0 and I’ll be blogging that live:
Session: Human Resources and Workforce Collaboration
Moderator - Oliver Marks, Blogger, Sovos Group, ZDNet
Panelists:
Mary Woolf, Director, Learning Technologies, Yum! Brands
Dusty Fisher, Communications and Marketing Online Manage, Exempla
Nick Howe, Vice President, HDS Academy, Hitachi Data Systems
Of course, not all references to HR 2.0 have anything do do with what most people associate with 2.0 ie web 2.0 / social media. For example, this HR 2.0 conference with Jac Fitz-Enz that’s been running for the last couple of days has got nothing to do with HR 2.0 at all really! (and I’m not sure about this session at SHRM’s national conference either).
But I still think something’s stirring. What about you?
I’ve been reading Tony Hsieh’s book, Delivering Happiness (like all of my book reviews, based upon a free advanced copy of the book).
Who?
For those who don’t know (and there’s still a high proportion of HR people in Europe and elsewhere who don’t), Hsieh is CEO of Las Vegas based online shoe retailer, Zappos, now owned by Amazon.
Zappos - HCM
Zappos’ mojo / organisational capability is a slightly weird, family and customer service focused culture which is supported by a desire to increase happiness in employees, customers and others who come into contact with the company (for more of a feel on Zappos’ unique culture, watch this video on Zappos’ WOW! culture).
Zappos tailors its HR processes to develop the human capital it requires to support this capability. For example, in order to ensure employees can relate to customers in a very human way, the company asks prospective recruits to describe how weird they are (Zappos is looking for high but not extreme levels of weirdness in its candidates’ responses). The company considers the need for employees to be aligned with its organisational capability to be so important that it even offers newly inducted employees $2,000 USD to leave the company if these people no longer believe that they will fit in the organisation.
And Zappos HR team is given accountability for ensuring alignment between organisational capability, people management processes and the people the company employs. So for example, recruiters are able to veto a candidate if they don’t think the individual would fit in Zappos’ culture, regardless of the hiring manager’s opinions of the person’s ability to do a particular job.
This is a video of Tony Hsieh describing Zappos culture that I recorded at the Human Capital Institute (HCI)’s summit in Phoenix, Arizona, last year.
Zappos – Social Advantage
Zappos also provides a good, if slightly less compelling, case study on the other areas I write about – social capital.
Hsieh notes that connectedness – the number and depth of your relationships - is one of four things (along with perceived control, perceived progress and vision / meaning) which leads to individual and business happiness. He refers to Gallup’s findings that engagement is correlated with the number of good friends an employee has at work (even if social relationships aren’t considered important in all engagement surveys) and to conclusions in the Happiness Hypothesis that happiness doesn’t come from within, but from between.
So Zappos focuses on creating a positive team and family spirit:
“We are more that a team though – we are a family. We watch out for each other, care for each other, and go above and beyond for each other because we believe in each other and we trust each other. We work together but we also play together. Our bonds go far beyond the typical ‘co-worker’ relationships found at most other companies.”
I like this idea for example:
“In most companies, logging in to the computer systems requires a login and password. At Zappos, an additional step is required: a photo of a randomly selected employee is displayed, and the user is given a multiple-choice test to name that employee. Afterward, the profile and bio of that employee are shown, so that everyone can learn more about each other. Although there is no penalty for giving the wrong answer, we do keep a record of everyone’s score. Internally, we refer to this as ‘The face Game’.”
This is Hsieh talking about the value of social relationships:
Zappos – social media
Zappos also makes heavy use of social media tools like blogs and Twitter in order to help build more personal connections with employees and customers (you can follow Tony Hsieh’s own tweets and I also like his article on Twitter and happiness).
Here is Hsieh talking about this.
It’s also interesting that this book is being supported by what’s probably the biggest ever blogger outreach programme for a new book (at least the biggest one I’ve been involved in).
The book
Zappos is clearly a great organisation – firstly, because of its mojo / values which describes a sort of place that many people would like to work in, and secondly, because of how well it has created a culture / organisational capability aligned to this mojo / its organisational values.
As Hsieh notes:
“It doesn’t actually matter what your company’s core values are. What matters is that you have them and that you commit to them. What’s important is the alignment that you get from them when they become the default way of thinking for the entire organization.”
So I’ve been looking forward to reading this book.
It serves, I think, as a good overview of Zappos’ culture and development, particularly for those who haven’t come across it previously. The other main thing I liked about it is that it is a very compelling and readable autobiography – not normally a format that appeals to me. And I think Tony Hsieh’s entrepreneurial mindset comes over very clearly.
Where, personally, I’d have liked to have seen a bit more focus is on the theme of this book, and Zappos brand promise – delivering happiness.
Delivering happiness
Tony Hsieh is clearly a very happy guy, and not just for the obvious reasons. And the company he has created is one which enables people to be happy at work. But I wouldn’t buy this book if your own objective is to maximise your own or your organisation’s happiness – I think there are other books that provide better advice on this (and it’s a subject I’d love to return to and post on again myself).
I’m also not convinced everybody’s end goal is happiness as Tony Hsieh suggests. So, for example, I think his highest level of happiness, having a higher purpose meaning, can be a goal in its own right, not just one that will deliver happiness. In fact, I’d suggest that that higher purpose is likely to be served best by focusing on this for itself, rather than as a source of happiness – and that doing this may actually result in more happiness too.
I was hoping to read more on Hsieh’s views on this area but perhaps good ideas will now emerge from the movement he’s set up.
A happiness survey
It’s very difficult to identify areas where Zappos could improve the way it manages its people to deliver happiness. However, I’ll have a try:
Hsieh mentions that Zappos run a regular employee survey including statements such as:
I believe that the company has a higher purpose beyond just profits
My role at Zappos has a real purpose – it is more than just a job
I fell that I am in control of my career path and that I am progressing in my personal and professional development at Zappos
I consider my co-workers to be like my family and friends
I am very happy in my job.
These are all great questions, and again, very well aligned to Zappos’ mojo. But, with the possible exception of the last one, they’re all focused on enablers – on satisfaction with other things rather than with outcomes like engagement of the individual employee.
Actually, the important outcome of course is happiness (another potentially important element of human capital other than engagement). And I’m not sure that Zappos tests this very well as the last question in the list above may result in responses relating more to an employee’s job than their real level of happiness in work, and in life as well.
So I think Zappos need to ask something like ‘I’m happier at this point in my life than I’ve ever been in the past’. It’d be interesting to see how well these enablers about happiness correlate to an outcome question or questions like this.
It might even help Hsieh write more extensively about happiness in his next book.
PS Zappos have sent me two Delivering Happiness books, so if anyone wants my second copy and would like to arrange to pick it up from me in London sometime this week, let me know.
I’ve recently published on opportunities for training / learning in social recruiting and thought I’d do the same for social learning.
There don’t seem to be the same number of courses and workshops in this area though. Perhaps because those people involved in informal learning realise the learning can be facilitated in a more informal and social way!
We’ve got an amazing group of people already booked to attend. But if you want to join us, there’s currently still space to join us. Don’t leave it too long though!
Event Details
We're now organising the second Connecting HR Tweet-up (a London based meet-up for HR people using or interested in social media including Twitter).
The first event, held on the 29th March was very well received with some 60+ attendees from organisations including Betfair, Pizza Express, Sega, Leonard Cheshire, BT, Symantec, Talis, Mayborn Group, CM Murray and London Overground. The CIPD also attended as did most of the major HR journalists and websites including Personnel Today, XpertHR, HRZone and Changeboard.
To get a flavour for the event, take a look at the independent reviews from Mike Morrison, Donald H Taylor, TheHRD and HRZone (The Editors Blog: Charlie Duff) on their respective blog posts.
Photo's of the event can also be seen here and here. For those of you already using twitter you can catch up on some of the many comments by reviewing the hashtag stream at #ConnectingHR.
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VENUE
Once again, we'll be meeting in a private room in The Square Pigjust North of Holborn Station.
And once again, the event will be free to attend, including drinks, sponsored by Courtenay HR.
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The event is open to:
Individuals currently working inside an organisation as an HR, Recruitment, L&D, OD, Internal Communication Professional.
Journalist, Academic or Representative of Professional Body.
Suppliers please check note on the eventbrite site.
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EVENT STRUCTURE
The event is designed as an informal networking and sharing opportunity. We are hoping to include a few short 'open mic' sessions at intervals during the evening to give the attendees a chance to ask questions and share their experiences. Further details will be posted nearer the time. We will also be sharing more details of the first HR 'Unconference' to be held in the UK.
We're sure this will be a really great networking event and we look forward to seeing you there!
sarah foster, Chief People Officer, talis Twitter name: HRWPB Blog address: www,ocelotchatelaine.blogspot.com Other blog / community etc: talis sharedinnovation
I’d like to invite my contacts and readers of Strategic HCM to participate in Lexy Martin’s / CedarCrestone’s 2010 HR Systems Survey.
This is the 13th year of the survey, and although global in focus, it has previously tended to focus mainly on the US. Lexy and I are hoping to involve more participants from the UK and Europe this year (participants should be from HR and IT management with knowledge of planned / existing HR technologies and from organisations in any sector but with over 500 employees).
The survey is a comprehensive research effort designed to provide organisations with important data to plan, justify, benchmark, and execute HR technologies.
Questions cover:
Application adoption
HR software acquisition and deployment trends
"Going global" trends
The value of HR technologies.
All responses are anonymous and will be kept confidential. Information will only be used in the aggregate. The survey questionnaire is available online at www.CedarCrestone.com/hrssv86 and is open until 5 July, 2010.
The first 100 respondents completing the survey will receive a $5 Starbucks card (you may have to fly to the US to use it though?). Other incentives are outlined below*.
All respondents will receive an advance copy of the results in late September 2010. In addition, Lexy and I are planning a special webinar of results focusing on the European audience.
We appreciate your contribution to the most comprehensive collection of data focused on HR technologies usage and overall HR service delivery.
Alexia Martin Director, Research and Analytics CedarCrestone
Jon Ingham Executive Consultant Strategic HCM
CedarCrestone offers a special discount for survey participants that complete all sections: $500 off the regular registration price for the 2010 HR Technology® Conference of $1,695 which can be used by any employees of the company completing the survey. When you return your completed survey, we will send you a discount code to apply to the Conference fee. We will also enter each company completing a survey in a drawing to win a free benchmark project from CedarCrestone worth $10,000 (benchmark project award is subject to all laws, void where prohibited or restricted, limited in scope as defined by CedarCrestone, and has no cash value).
I’ve been having a conversation with Stefano Sedda, HR and Organisation Director at Meridiana airline in Italy, who is also presenting at the 
Something is happening in the field of HR 2.0 (the use of web 2.0 / social media in HR). After the last couple of years being one of a handful of bloggers talking about this, there are now signs that this is going mainstream.
I’ve been reading Tony Hsieh’s book, 
I’ve recently published on opportunities for training / learning in 
June already, and that means it’ll shortly be the event of the Summer – 
I’d like to invite my contacts and readers of Strategic HCM to participate in Lexy Martin’s / CedarCrestone’s 2010 HR Systems Survey.
Check out these recent posts from my 
