#HRTechConf – my HR 2.0 presentation

 

   Thanks to everyone for attending my session on HR 2.0 this morning.  I’m amazed there was so many of you and apologise for those of you who had to stand at the back.  And I’m pleased the feedback seems to suggest most of you enjoyed it (I did notice a few of you fall asleep, but I hope there are other reasons for that).

Sorry I ran out of time to take you through all the case studies I wanted to – I must admit I hadn’t anticipated taking my introductory inputs to take as long as they did.  However, I do believe that focusing on these was important so that you all understand what all the case studies are about, ie what’s the similarity between them, and also why they are all so different (ie that the choice of social technology and social approaches is so dependent upon the social outcomes you want to create, plus the content you’re working in, and so on).

You’ll also find some of these case studies discussed on this blog (my HR one), and on my other one (my social capital one).  And they’ll all be covered in my book – whenever I manage to complete it!

Sorry also that I ran out of time to have much conversation with you - I even forgot to ask what was going on in Twitter!: 

KristenTClark Kristen Thane Clark 

Social Networking session w/out mentioning a single social network-truly about interactions, not systems! @joningham #HRTechConf

49 minutes ago 

yvette_cameron1 Yvette Cameron 

Teams are the most important unit of the Biz. Develop individuals so they effectively influence team performance.@joningham #HRTechconf

57 minutes ago 

lexymartin Alexia Lexy Martin 

Thanks for mentions and RTs: @infullbloomUS @megbear@hpropperusg @joningham @meghansetzer @lumesse@billkutik

1 hour ago 

yvette_cameron1 Yvette Cameron 

The HR2.0 challenge: transform HR from focusing on Human Resources to Human Relationships @joningham #HRTechconf

1 hour ago 

RobTorio Robert Torio 

@joningham: HR 2.0 = Move from Human Resources to Human Relationships

1 hour ago 

OptimusPrimeSol OptimusPrimeSolution 

Do we reward teams the same way we recognize and reward individuals? HR 2.0 thought. @joningham #HRTechConf

1 hour ago 

yvette_cameron1 Yvette Cameron 

Should HR change its language to be more about business or should business change its lang. to be more about people?@joningham #HRTechConf

1 hour ago 

OptimusPrimeSol OptimusPrimeSolution 

@joningham Organizations have to be human before they become social #HRTechConf

1 hour ago 

»

KristenTClark Kristen Thane Clark 

Ready for @joningham 's session to start: HR 2.0 ...room is filling up! #HRTechConf

2 hours ago 

 

Anyway, thanks for the questions you did ask.  If you’ve got more questions that I didn’t manage to answer after the end of the session, please jot them down on the comments below, and I’ll do my best to answer with a comment on my own – and / or we can follow-up off-line).

And if you’re doing much of this yourselves, I’d love to hear from you – I am still after more case studies for my book.  I’ve got quite a few for the different areas I discuss (ie the various technological, human, organisational and social actions) but only a few of organisations that are putting some of these different activities together.

And stay in touch - @joningham on Twitter, on my different blogs, and maybe even in real-life too, especially if you want any help on implementing HR 2.0 yourselves...

 

Cross posted on Social Advantage

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#HRTechConf Day 2 notes

 

   Another great day in Vegas:

 

 

 

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#HRTechConf Day 1 notes

 

   HRevolution has finished (sort-of, though there are some HRevolution sessions taking place on Wednesday) so it’s time for the main event: Bill Kutik’s HR Technology conference:

 

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John Boudreau transforming HR at #HRTechConf

 

   John Boudreau is another one of those not-such-a-favourite-of-mine academics, but my HR blogging friend in Singapore, Abhishek Mittal, has been singing his praises, so I’ve been looking forward to his session in Las Vegas.

Boudreau has been encouraging us to think more like scientists – to get between the ears of our leaders.  We need to ask are we using the evidence that exists in our organisations, in the scientific world ie evidence that already exists, and how do we look beyond the evidence to influence decision making.

1.   We need to move from having lots of information to putting this information to use.  Rather than giving our leaders lots of information and hoping they’ll invent a system to use it. 

 

2.   We need to retool HR by learning from the dilemmas facing other disciplines.  And we need to learn the  business models or our organisations, not just the businesses themselves.

And we need to push back a bit (create value) – not just agree to reduce time to fill requisitions, surpluses and shortages but to identify how to optimise these.

For example, we need to learn from Supply Chain Management how we can improve the supply chain of talent.  This is what IBM did bringing in their second top person in SCM to design their approach for talent – including a governance model for skills etc.

 

3. We need to segment our talent eg Starbucks segmentation into five groups including ‘I work to live, not live to work’ (the surfer dude) – sorry my picture didn’t take, and this one from Ben Brooks is the only one I’ve seen (please let me know if you’ve got a better one!):

 

We need to understand things like the theory of constraints – asking better questions to inform decision making.

 

4. We need to get better at using risk management as the basis for workforce planning, rather than seeing it as just stopping something bad from happening.  There are links between uncertainty, risk and opportunity.  We need to use tools like portfolio analysis.  And we need to plan for a largely unknown system rather than using the job titles etc which exist today.

 

5.   We also need to ensure that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts eg that our systems integrate with each other.  Less best of the art systems and more that fit together and deliver what we need (see the Executive Guide to Integrated Talent Management)

Eg Shanda Games, based in China which is the fastest groing online gaming system in the work has built its HR architecture as a massively multi-player online game with a 100 level staffing system to help people see progress.

 

 

Well, I don’t know Abhishek: there’s not a lot of new stuff in there (I certainly think it’s time Boudreau moves on from his “there’s only one Mickey Mouse” spiel).

I did like the Shanda example, and would have preferred a whole session focused on that.

But my bigger concern is with this whole scientist thing.  If Boudreau was talking about social science rather than physical science then perhaps I wouldn’t be so worried.  But I don’t think he is.

And actually, I don’t even think that social science takes us far enough.  Let me be blunt.  HR’s an art.

OK, it’s a science as well, but the magical stuff that makes organisations wonderful places to work doesn’t have anything to do with Boudreau’s five needs.

If you look at any of the case studies I’ve featured in my blog, eg Mahindra & Mahindra which I wrote about last week, or Zappos, where I’ll be on Thursday, none of these have anything do to with science.

Let’s just grow up, understand that HR is different from other business disciplines, and start to act differently, not just the same, as our business colleagues.

That, to me, is transformative HR!

 

 

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#HRevolution notes

 

   I’m in Las Vegas at HRevolution again today – trying out Storify:

 

 

My posts from the previous HRevolution:

• Love in HR (and at #HRevolution)
• What will HR’s evolution be? Liz Gottung at Kimber...
• #HREvolution, Nobscot and Exit Interviews

 

And don’t forget about ConnectingHR!

 

Technorati Tags: HRevolution,unconference,Las Vegas

 

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Singapore Human Capital Summit – Summary

 

   I’ve been telling everyone I’ve been meeting here how much I’d love to come and live in Singapore. The challenge I’ve had from a couple of people is that it’s difficult to add value as an expat here without significant experience and understanding in the region.

Well yes… But:

1. I think this need to understanding the context applies to every country, and actually every different organisation. Asia is different from Europe, America and elsewhere, but it’s not THAT different – at least I’ve not heard anything during these two days, or during my previous two day workshop in KL, that convinces me it is.

By the way, I have by the way done a decent amount of work here, though most of it was before the recession (or from an Asian perspective, the slow-down).

 

2. I think what is different is HOW business is done, rather than WHAT it involves. And here, I actually feel more at home with business in Asia than I do in the West. For example, I love the way that the Singapore Stock Exchange is so focused on encouraging their registered businesses to improve Board diversity to improve corporate governance and valuations. Just not something you’d see in the West.

 

3. Most of what I do is about helping HR teams innovate. Success is doing this is about being able to think differently. I believe it can actually be useful not to be close to the way that things are currently done. And I’m not convinced that enough Asian businesses are thinking transformationally enough, to cope with the environment they’re in (just like Western businesses in fact).

 

My posts:

• Learning from India
• Innovative Asian People Strategies
• Vineet Nayar on the perfect storm
• Leadership strategies in Asia
• Collaborative Leadership in Asia

 

 

Technorati Tags: Asian,Singapore,human capital,HR,summit,innovation,consulting

 

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Learning from India

 

   Peter Cappelli (or Peetr Kappalli) hasn’t always been my favourite academic, but I did very much enjoy his recent book, The India Way. So I thought I’d take a chance and attend his session today, and listen to a couple of organisations which participated in his research.

We kicked off with Peetr describing some of his research.

 

The one thing which I think came out most strongly was the importance of having a social purpose.

 

Ed Miliband may now recognise that “we need a more ethical capitalism in which we recognise that business has real responsibilities. Business is not just about making money.” (though he doesn’t seem to be getting much support for these views) but in India that’s long been the way things are done.

Social purpose drives the business and making money certainly won’t be what you want to lead with. This approach pays off – employees will be more motivated when they see and believe there is a social purpose.

 

We then had a presentation from Rajeev Dubey, President at Mahindra & Mahindra.

M&M are creating Tomorrow’s Company. This is a business transformation created from a cultural transformation (creating value) – about moving people from the subtext to the headlines, and aligning behaviours in support of the triple bottom line.

 

The transformation requires a mix a logic and intuition, in which people are in the flow – and can go deep into any situation, and trust through authenticity.

M&M run fireside chats to connect young employees with senior execs (these are also streamed virtually).

 

And they provide ESOPs but these are employee social (vs share) options –facilitating employee volunteerism in social activities.

I thought this was a great presentation – absolutely the way that companies should be run.

 

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Innovative Asian People Strategies

 

   As someone who focuses on helping organisations develop more innovative people management and organisation development strategies, I’m interested in this statement from the CIPD:

“Across Asia, unprecedented rates of growth and levels of change are making strong demands on the strategic ability of organisations to innovate and on their creativity.  Building organisations that thrive, and developing the talent pool to lead them are challenges at the heart of business strategies.

We’ve developed new insights into these challenegs through our research in Asia.  this paints a picture of a regional HR profession that can overtake current global best practice to deliver uniquely Asian HR strategies that are truly growth-orientated.”

 

It’s a bit of a fluffy statement, but also quite profound, if true.

Given this, one of the sessions at the Singapore Human Capital Summit I was most looking forward to was the one on innovative Asian people strategies. Unfortunately, there wasn’t as much innovation in evidence as I would have liked, although a couple of the case studies were reasonably interesting.

So Sumeet Salwan, VP HR, SE Asia at Unilver described the scale and growth that Unilever is facing, and also emphasized that it is having the right people, and a performance culture, not technology etc, which is critical to business success.

Summeet gave a nice example of workforce planning leading to a better understanding of the sorts of actions which would be needed to generate this success.

 

And I agree with Sumeet that Unilever deserves credit for understanding that this required some significant investment and big actions, not just “focusing a little more and working a little harder”. So Unilver has invested 45m (SGD?) in a new ‘4 acres’ leadership campus in Singapore.

I also liked the presentation from Hamidah Naziadin at CIMB. She has been working at this major regional bank for 20 years (starting off doing all the payroll etc herself). The company has also seen huge growth and challenges including mergers, Unions etc, and was also the one organisation to note that it now uses social media to support orientation etc.

 

I liked CIMB’s focus on ‘carefrontation’ – being a type of open confrontation based on respect for the individual, which struck me as a very appropriate Asian approach..

I was also interested that at the same time I was tweeting about this, someone else at the conference tweeted about the perspective of an employee in another Asian company suggesting that the Western concept of straight talk is simply an excuse to be rude – something which I think is often true. So I like the idea of carefrontation, but is it that innovative?

Is there really more innovation taking place in Asia than in the West? I’d have loved to have read through all the entries to the Asian Human Capital Awards, and certainly the winners of this – HCL and Manila Water were quite innovative. But I’m not sure there’s as much HR innovation going on in Asia as the CIPD suggest – or that needs to happen of course…

This is certainly a region of immense challenge, I’m quite certain of this. And the conference was full of data points emphasising the huge numbers of people who need to be recruited and developed as leaders etc (Walmart Asia suggest they’ll need to interview 1 million people over the next 5 years). They do need innovation, but I’m not currently convinced that many more of them will be able to follow in HCL’s footprints (meaning finding a unique strategy which differentiates them – not just copying Employees First, Customers Second – which I’m not convinced will work) than will be able to do so in the West…

(Without the right help of course!)

 

Technorati Tags: Innovation,Asia,HR,Hamidah Naziadin,CIMB,carefrontation,Sumeet Salwan,Unilever,Singapore,human capital,summit

 

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