HR Technology

Professor Adrian Furnham Department of Psychology University College London

a.furnham@ucl.ac.uk

The Good News: HR has a real IMPACT on the value chain

SALES: personality of sales staff; hiring and retention; customer loyalty…service-value chain.

MARKETING: customer behaviour; psychographics; other segmentation processes; advertising effectiveness; choice of medium.

MANUFACTURING: ergonomics; physical stressors; attention; cognitive failures; vigilance; Hawthorne effect; team-work and productivity.

FINANCE: management of specialists. Training technical specialists to become managers.

HR: personnel psychology; appraisal systems; staff development; vocational psychology; training; management education; money and motivation.

IT: ergonomics; techno phobia; comprehension of particular material.

OTHER OVERHEAD: board composition; corporate culture; leadership; organisational structure; stress; re-engineering; teleworking; home-work interface; morale.

The Bad News. Criticisms of HR:

“People are our most important asset”,

Truism, little respected in actuality.

“Personnel is an anagram of overhead.”

HR people are costly, bureaucratic, unresponsive time wasters who add no value.

HR is thought of as only really useful for compliance and, where appropriate, industrial relations issues.

Yet….

•  Even the most hard-headed business consultancies have had to, indeed chose to, embrace human factors and HR issues such as leadership development.

•  Everyone wants to know how to find and develop talented people.

•  People want a fair performance management system and a good

“Comp. and Ben.” department.

•  Many understand the issues around Personality Clashes in the Boardroom

•  It is recognised from case studies and general “gossip” that organisations which have great HR survive and thrive.

Why HR Managers never become CEOs

1.Personal Qualities: Empathic rather than egocentric: Co-operative rather than competitive: Socio-emotional rather than task-oriented.

2. Reactive Approach: Administrative rather than strategic Adaptor rather than Innovator.

3. Poor Data Base Lack of information (data on absenteeism, high flyers). Few if any tracking systems. Not using IT possibilities

4. Invisibility Difficult to see/prove effect of HR on bottom line.

5. Integration with other departments Too isolated from other major departments

Inves&ga&ve   Ar&s&c  

Social  

Enterprising  Conven&onal  

Realis&c  

Ideas  

People  

Data  

Things  

Choosing Jobs: Are HR and IT people opposites?

Similarities between HR and IT

•  Head not always on the board: report to Finance or some other board member

•  Seen as cost not profit centre: Therefore not worthy of serious investment

•  Not always politically aware: not good at power-play inside and outside organisations

•  Aware of change, but not always good at implementing it: talk, rather than action

The Dark Side of IT

•  Subtle monitoring and surveillance: spying on people at work.

•  Reductionism to simple numbers: subtlety and “humanity” lost.

•  Vulnerable to “hackers”, disenchanted staff wanting revenge.

Dimensions of the HR Function

1.   Narrow vs. Broad Minimalist role vs Fully integrated

2.   Fat vs. Slim HR: Employee ratio 1:140 1:300

3.   Reporting line To functional head or board member

4.   Centralised vs. Federal Devolved or not

5.   Complex departments vs. One man bands

Shape and size

6.   Degree of Professionalism

Specialist vs. Generalist; Deep vs. Shallow

7.   People vs. Process Orientation Preferred ways of getting things done

8.   People rich vs. Asset rich organisation How much the business needs experts

9.   Speed of Business Shorter vs. Longer term

HR Competencies Three higher order overlapping sets

A.   Knowledge of the Business World.

B.   Delivery of Traditional Human Resource Practices.

C.   Management of Change Process.

Seven crucial challenges for the new HR professional

•  Strategic focus.

•  Business expertise.

•  Developmental capabilities.

•  Collaborative relationships.

•  Transactional/service excellence.

•  Greater expertise in evaluation and measurement.

•  Tools and processes that clearly add value to business performance and capability

HR Competencies Generating Competencies

•  Staffing Attract appropriate/talented people Promote appropriate people

Outplace appropriate people

•  Development Provide training programmes

Design development programmes that facilitate change

Prepare talent through cross functional moves offer career planning services

Sustaining Competencies

•  Communication Work with managers to send clear & consistent messages

Help explain why business practices exist

Facilitate design of internal communication process

•  Organisation Help create reporting relationships

Design Facilitate the process of restructuring the organisation

Facilitate the integration of different business functions

Reinforcing Competencies

•  Performance Facilitate establishment of clear Appraisal performance standards Design feedback process

Design performance appraisal systems to differentiate performance

Design performance appraisal systems for career planning.

•  Rewards Design non-financial reward

Design compensation systems

Design benefits systems

HR Competencies Areas of knowledge were rank-ordered by American HR professionals in terms of their importance to that function.

Competence Mean Knowledge of Business 3.17

Human Res. Practice 4.47 Org. structure 4.15

Customer relations 3.53

Gov. relations 3.21

Competitor analysis 3.16

Product. Capability 3.15

Marketing & Sales 3.13

Financial Management 3.10

Competence Mean Computer/Info. System 3.04

Globalisation 2.99 Distribution Channels 2.90

Customer Buying Criteria 2.85

Design Products/Service 2.76

Research & Development 2.73

Mergers/Acquisitions 2.68

Divestitures 2.60

Crucial HR Competencies for the Future

•  Up-to-date, In-depth Business Understanding. Own and others’

•  Focus on Leadership Selecting, Retaining, Developing

•  Focus on Performance Keeping the organisation legal; focusing on all contributory factors

•  Talent Acquisition & Retention Making sure good people want to join stay, contribute

•  Focus on Measurement Understanding how to measure soft and hard variables

Crucial HR Competencies for the Future

•  Organisational Development Creating the appropriate context that shapes behaviour.

•  Clarify & Updating Organisational Design Creating conditions for optimal performance.

•  Strategy Formulation HR strategy reflecting business strategy and vice versa.

•  Organisation Learning To help learn fast and better.

•  Development of Technology Understanding what technology to choose, use and adapt.

Technology actually empowers HR

•  It helps integrate systems within the organisation.

•  It can reduce costs.

•  It helps time shared services.

•  It brings Modernity, sophistication, analytic power and savings

to HR department.

HR change is driven by:

•  Technology •  Legislation/regulation

•  Global/economic trends •  Demographics

•  Social change

•  New models/methods of business, as well as mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, alliances.

•  Know how, innovation, business intelligence

Sizing up your organisation for real change

•  Has the organisation a history of successful adaptation and change?

•  Are the “grown-ups” committed to real change?

•  Is adaptation and change in the KPIs and KRAs of (all) senior managers?

•  Is there coherent change strategy?

•  How “Unified” is the organisation?

HR Technology and Change

•  Do the technologists understand the business?

•  Do the technologists understand the culture and the psychology of change?

•  How to know the appetite for change in any part of the organisation?

•  Beware change-fatigue?

Change targets

Purpose Clarify or create mission and objectives

People Update recruiting and selection practices; improve training and development

Structure Update organisational design and coordination mechanisms

Strategy Clarify or create strategic and operational plans

Tasks Update job designs for individuals and groups

Culture Clarify or create core beliefs and values

Objectives Set or modify specific performance targets

Technology Improve equipment, facilities and work flows

Organisational targets for planned change

Futurology

•  What do the guru’s say? •  What are the implications for HR?

•  What are the implications for IT?

Mega-Trends Mindofafox)

•  Populations are aging •  More economies will return to a steady state •  We are entering a post-American world •  We have moved from the Age of Knowledge to the Age of

Intelligence •  It is more about defending your wealth than growing it •  Education is out of synchrony with the job market and the

changing nature of work •  We are watching a second, major scramble for resources •  Wars will continue to be fought as weapons become more

sophisticated •  Dictatorial regimes will become rarer, but what replaces them

is not necessarily democracy •  The work/life balance is now even more elusive

The future of Work Lynda Gratton

•  Technological Developments: mobile devices, the cloud

•  Globalisation: the BRICK countries

•  Demographic Changes: ageing, immigration •  Societal Trends: Urbanisation, Autonomy,

Trust

•  Low-Carbon Developments: the green agenda

•  Dissolution of the unit of work in time and space

•  A faster rate of innovation •  The increased complexity of work

•  Global competition •  Development of larger and smaller units

•  Changing job and career concepts

•  More team work •  Reduced supervision

•  Increased cultural diversity

Nine  Trends  for  the  World  of  Work  

•  Demographics: In the West this means fewer young people relative to a large aging generation who are, very expensively, living longer. This has led to attempts to replace younger people by immigration which results in a diversified workplace. This affects the whole concept of retirement: whether it should be mandatory, whether people should be expected to work into their seventies.

•  Health: For obvious reasons organizations want to encourage a (physically and mentally) healthy workforce. Employers will provide health-care and fitness facilities which are a good investment and potentially attractive to many employees.

•  The workplace and work force has been feminized which has led to conflict between production and reproduction.

Themes  that  shape  the  future  of  Work:  Donkin  2010,  FT  Columnist  and  author  

•  Technological advances have been both a scourge and a savior at work. Facebook, Blackberry’s and the Internet in general have changed dramatically how, when and where we communicate with fellow workers and customers. The technologically adept will be influential in the future.

•  Social Networking changes contact patterns inside and outside the work-place. It makes secrets much harder to control. The quality and quantity of a person’s connected will inevitably influence their work productivity and capability.

•  People will seek for more meaning, purpose and authenticity at work. They will not blindly accept the values and career path of previous generations and ask serious questions about what they have inherited and what they will pass on to others.

Themes  that  shape  the  future  of  Work:  Donkin  2010,  FT  Columnist  and  author  

•  Part-time employment, defined at working less than 30 hours per week. Permanent vs. casual, good vs. bad, voluntary vs. involuntary.

•  Contingent employment, defined as when an individual is working for an organisation but is not considered a regular employee. These include temporary, casual and technical contingent workers.

•  Flextime, defined as when employees vary their starting and quitting times but are required to work a standard number of hours within a specific time period.

Alterna>ve  Work  Arrangements  

•  Compressed work weeks, defined as re-allocating the work time by condensing the total hours in the traditional five-day work week into fewer days.

•  Teleworking, defined as working at a location away from the traditional place or work, full- or part-time, and involving the use of telecommunications and the electronic processing of information.

Alterna>ve  Work  Arrangements  

According to some reviewers, people could be virtual teams that may never meet but have total access to each other. The advantages include:

•  Teleworking eliminates lack of access to experts – everyone is online, all the time;

•  Intercontinental teams can be formed – proximity is not an issue •  Consultants can be hired and do not need to charge travel,

lodging and downtime; •  One can hire the best people in the world to join that network at

negligible cost; •  People can easily be part of different teams at the same time; •  Because everything is online, swift responses to any event,

including demands of the market, are possible.

Teleworking  

•  Cubicles and Caves: Private places in an open-plan office.

•  Hotelling: Hot-desking where workers ring in advance to pre-book the facilities they need (like a hotel).

•  Motelling: Like hotelling but workers do not need to pre-book.

•  Guesting: Arrangements between companies who provide hot desks for each other’s employees.

Work  Spaces  of  the  Future  

IT and the new world

•  How can IT and HR get together to help design the new world of work?

•  How to improve communication; data collection, analysis and storage; on-line selection; team-working; remote working?

No End to Change

•  HR is in the midst of a changing business and the business of change.

•  Change & Adaptation is a joint journey not a destination

•  HR must champion change & be exemplars of it.