Today's post comes to us courtesy of board member Jeanne C. Meister. Jeanne is a Partner at Future Workplace, and co-author of the award winning HR book, The Future Workplace Experience: 10 Rules For Mastering Disruption In Recruiting and Engaging Employees.

The rate and pace of digital transformation is impacting all business functions. HR is at the center of this as digital disruption is fundamentally changing the ways employers recruit and engage talent.

The hackathon, once used only in the IT world, is now being reinvented by HR to improve both the candidate and the employee experience while helping to develop deeper cross-functional skills within the HR department.

Simply defined, a traditional hackathon is an event where computer programmers, software designers, graphic artists, and others come together to create a new product. In fact, the Facebook “Like” button and Facebook Chat were both first demoed at internal Facebook hackathons.

Hackathons are now being used inside Human Resources, led by the Chief Human Resources Officer, to re-invent the candidate and employee experience. In the past, I have researched hackathons at LinkedIn to better understand the experience of a college intern and Cisco to "break" big and small HR practices to deliver a more memorable experience. What both of these hackathons have in common is the desire to let go of process thinking and silos and become more employee-focused.

Increasingly HR Hackathons are bringing together HR practitioners with internal business leaders, design thinking Facilitators, software designers, product researchers, UX designers and start-Up CEO's to ideate and prototype new breakthrough solutions for the organization.

Regardless of whether the end-product is improving the candidate experience, creating new banking solutions or enhancing the employee experience, the goal of a hackathon is the same: to bring a diverse group of individuals together to meet digital disruption head on.

Often this involves defining the business problem, setting up the process and criteria for success and watching individuals collaborate and produce amazing solutions for the business.

Have you tried a hackathon - HR or otherwise-focused - at your organization? What did you think? Tell me about it in the Comments section!

You can read more about HR Hackathons and learn how Jet.com and DBS have used them to innovate in my expanded article on this topic on Forbes.com.

The following guest post is courtesy of our board member, David Creelman.

A recent Harvard Business Review online article written by myself and two colleagues, Peter Navin and John Boudreau, titled “Why More Executives Should Consider Becoming a CHRO” has attracted a lot of attention. Many CEOs have thought of bringing in business leaders without HR experience to run HR; and it's a tactic that is rich in both opportunity and risk. However, it's not the tactic that grabbed people's attention, it was the experience business leaders had when they moved into HR.

The experience is captured in an observation by executive search leader Phil Johnson: “When a CEO asks a business leader to run HR, the most frequent response is _What did I do wrong?' It's not seen as a desirable role; it's seen as punishment. Of course, they haven't had a chance to think it through, but that's the first reaction.”

That first reaction is not entirely unfair, HR has a reputation as a bureaucratic backwater. Never mind that research by Dave Ulrich and Ellie Fisher shows that the CHRO's competencies closely match those needed for a CEO; joining HR isn't usually seen as a great career move. No wonder most business leaders are surprised if they are offered the role.

But wait, that was not the big surprise.

The big surprise for business leaders is that the CHRO role is absolutely the best one they've ever had. It has unparalleled scope and freedom. It has massive impact across all elements of the business–and it's fun. Let's imagine you have a problem with too many bugs in your new fintech app. Maybe the solution is to change the incentives. Maybe it's improving hiring or re-working the job design. Perhaps training needs to be better or you need a fix to the corporate culture in terms of collaboration. Almost all the levers for solving these business problems lie within HR; no wonder business leaders found running HR to be the best job ever.

The lesson for CEOs is to stop thinking of HR as an administrative support unit. See the CHRO as one of the top two or three roles in the company and set expectations accordingly. An unleashed HR department, staffed by the right people, is a massive competitive advantage for firms willing to think differently.

One can't help but be reminded of Kronos which is now a $1.3 billion-dollar company, that has delivered 9% compound annual growth over the last 5 years while also successfully transforming from an on-premise to a cloud technology provider. How did it do that? Well, a big part of it was elevating the HR function so that it could deliver the impact it is capable of. Kronos's HR function focuses on the business and makes its decisions based on the best available data and evidence. As a result, HR has played a big role in the organization's success, and the company regularly shows up on best places to work lists.

Here's one final lesson. David Almeda, Chief People Officer at Kronos says, “I don't think we're doing anything exceptional.” We got the same feeling from everyone we interviewed. No one was boastful about the cool or innovative or important things they were doing. Their successful deployment of the HR function was just a natural part of applying their best intelligence and business savvy to the issues facing the enterprise–and doing so in tight collaboration with the other business leaders.

CEOs need to change their expectations of HR; and business leaders from all functions should be fighting it out for a chance to get the best job in the C-suite: the job of CHRO.

Today's post comes to us from board member, Dennis Miller, the Chief Employment Officer of the Cal Poly Pomona Foundation. Dennis has had a long and varied career as a human resources professional and today he gives his thoughts on the importance of customization in the HR software implementation process - just not the kind of customization you are thinking of.

The U.S. Census Bureau reports that there are about 7.5 million “employer owned” businesses in the country, which we can assume have resulted in millions of software implementations over the years related to common business systems and processes, such as those found in accounting, finance, human resources and payroll. Extrapolating this number out, we can guess that there have probably been hundreds of millions of discussions about the best approach for evaluating, selecting, and implementing a new technology-based platform with the goal of improving process outcomes in a cost effective manner.

I myself have engaged in many discussions with colleagues in higher education specifically related to tips and techniques for successful software platform implementations in the areas of human resources and payroll. Many want to know what to do - and what not to do - to help ensure that the desired outcomes of the new software platform are realized. While advice of all stripes is plentiful, there is one tip so important it truly stands alone: When it comes to software implementations, look to customize your mindset, not the software itself.

customize your mind

Smart organizations start by examining the workflows in the new platform to understand how and why they are designed the way they are. These organizations then seek to modify their own existing internal workflows and processes to match those of the new platform.

Layering a new human resources or payroll platform on top of old processes will nearly always prevent the users from leveraging well-designed processes found in the new platform. Stated differently, when implementing human resources and payroll platforms, customization of the software and workflows should only be a last resort.

Steven Covey's famous quote “Start with the end in mind” is also applicable when implementing new software platforms. Each organization's processes work differently and yet the various core processes for human resources and payroll software platforms will typically be pre-configured from a workflow standpoint. Applying Mr. Covey's quote in this case means to start with focusing on the outcomes of the processes, and ultimately let the system do the heavy lifting for processing work. The workflow of the new system will usually be different than existing processes and that is okay - possibly even preferred in many cases.

When it comes to software implementations, focus on customizing your mindset - not the software - for success.

The following post is courtesy of board member Neil Reichenberg. Neil is the Executive Director of the International Public Management Association for Human Resources (IPMA-HR).  IPMA-HR is a nonprofit membership organization representing public sector human resource managers and professionals, undertaking research on human resource issues, as well as providing professional development, education, and information on pending legislation and regulations affecting HR issues.

“How can we make HR less transactional and more transformational?” This question has been asked in a variety of different ways throughout the close to four decades that I have worked for the International Public Management Association for Human Resources (IPMA-HR). While the members of IPMA-HR work in the public sector, the desire to shift HR to become a strategic partner that helps to improve organizational performance transcends all sectors. Despite most organizations recognizing that employees are their most valuable asset, and HR being the only part of the organization with people as its primary mission, criticism of the HR function continues. For example, the July/August 2015 issue of the Harvard Business Review has a picture of a bomb with the headline, “It's Time to Blow up HR and Build Something New”.

In September 2016, IPMA-HR issued a report titled “HR 2020 Shifting Perspectives: A Vision for Public Sector HR” that attempts to create a transformative roadmap for HR professionals. The framework starts with three critical lenses consisting of business acumen, innovation, and strategic orientation. IPMA-HR believes that viewing issues through these lenses will assist HR to be viewed as an influencer and strategic partner rather than a transactional, supporting player. The report also identifies five focus areas: leadership, culture, talent, technology, and communications. The report urges HR professionals to put the best possible programs and services in place in these five key areas. Taken together, the three lenses and five focus areas create a holistic framework for planning, communicating and implementing HR services that will meet the strategic and tactical needs of organizations.

You can access the full report here: www.ipma-hr.org/hr2020, where you will also find practical information, tools and resources for each of the focus areas. IPMA-HR is also finalizing online assessments for both HR professionals and HR departments that are designed to help them take a critical look at their service delivery orientation and options in order to determine program strengths and weaknesses. Scores can be tallied to determine strengths and development needs by focus area that will allow individuals and HR departments to tailor a development action plan. A third assessment is designed for HR departments to share with their business partners to obtain feedback on the key focus areas.

We hope this report and related tools and resources will help people and organizations take their HR to the next level, leaving the transactional in the rearview mirror and moving forward towards transformation.

office-620823_1920 Today's guest post is courtesy of our board member, China Gorman. China is a consultant, speaker, writer, and former CEO of the Great Place to Work® Institute.

If you read any business publication - print or online - you'll know that organization culture has become a critical advantage when competing for talent today. If the CEO and her C-suite commit to organizational values that promote the value of purpose, the building of trust, and the meaning of work, as well as the commitment to create real, personal relationships with colleagues - human-to-human rather than boss-to- subordinate - there is virtually no downside from an organizational performance perspective.

The tremendous productivity gains and culture-enhancing benefits promised by putting technology to use are huge. But using technology to create more human relationships and cultures at work is irony at its finest. Is there really an app for that?

Here's where we need to focus: if we allow technology, Big Data, and predictive analytics to make it harder - rather than easier - for us to relate to each other on a more human level, we'll have abdicated our responsibilities as leaders and missed an epic opportunity to improve our business outcomes.

If we miss this opportunity, it will most likely be because we neglected to set our first line supervisors and middle managers up for success. We're notoriously ineffective at equipping these folks to be good relationship builders, behavioral leaders, and approachable partners with the human business of our businesses. We focus, instead on “hard” skills development, if we invest in their development at all.

As we maximize the benefits of technology, Big Data, and people analytics, we also need to invest in developmental opportunities for all of our managers - with a special emphasis on middle managers and first line supervisors. If these critical leaders aren't focused on creating more personal relationships with their employees - including being equipped with skills, abilities, and attitudes to relate on a human level - if they aren't approachable, if they aren't trustworthy, if they aren't human, you'll get what you've always gotten. My belief, though, is that what you've always gotten won't be enough in 2017, 2018 or beyond. Bringing humanity into your culture through your first line supervisors and middle managers is a critical next step. But to do that will require focus and investment. Perhaps one of the most important investments in your 2017 plan.

What's your organization doing to enable your first line supervisors and middle managers to become more effective leaders?  Are they able to coach and develop your employees?  Do they make the time to do so?

mobile phone userWorkforce Institute board members Sharlyn Lauby and John Hollon joined me for a discussion of how quickly mobile technology is transforming HR.  John is Vice President for Editorial at ERE Media, the go-to source for information and conferences in the human resources and recruiting industries; and Sharlyn is the HR Bartender and President of ITM Group Inc., a training company focused on developing programs to retain and engage talent in the workplace.

Increasingly, HR leaders are grappling with the proliferation of mobile devices and the need for mobile applications for their employees.  And as John notes in our conversation, Gartner has recently predicted that more than 50% of organizations will require their employees to bring their own devices to work by 2017.

According to Gartner, "BYOD drives innovation for CIOs and the business by increasing the number of mobile application users in the workforce. Rolling out applications throughout the workforce presents myriad new opportunities beyond traditional mobile email and communications. Applications such as time sheets, punch lists, site check-in/check-out, and employee self-service HR applications are just a few examples."  

Is your organization moving in this direction?  How prepared are you for the practical (device support, security) and policy (overtime, privacy) implications of more mobile devices in your environment?  If you'd like to hear our discussion of the questions below, you can listen in on our discussion here:

 

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