Think Global, Work Local?

June 10th, 2010

I read a great article the other day on a favourite blog of mine – Invisible Oranges.

Invisible Oranges is predominantly concerned with heavy music and the streaming tracks are the major drawcard, but I tend to read every article on the site as the writing is generally excellent and thought provoking. (I know this sounds like someone who reads Playboy for the articles – but in this case it is true).

The article  in question examines the concept of whether a “local” or “regional” sound applies to music in an age when access to influences from around the globe are both mere seconds away and largely free. This idea of a localised voice is also reflected in the art world where the best art (most affecting/arresting/interesting) has historically been a reflection of time and place.

What is happening in the world of work?

Maybe the ongoing push to globalisation has been at the expense of what makes organisations and the experience of work itself unique. Without regional separation, can individual thinking and innovation have the necessary breathing room to develop and become the point of difference required to compete? Or will we merely have a slightly less interesting environment with the same top 10 hits on the chart, the same workforce strategies and a homogenous business culture?

What an inspiring place that would be.

Let me know if you have encountered any negative impacts of globalisation at work (or any top tips on bands to check out)

RP

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The daily pitch

June 6th, 2010

Think about all the times in your daily work that you are required to sell or market your organisation – yes, there’s formal marketing campaigns and new business proposals, but what about conducting interviews to ensure you attract the best candidate? Or walking into a client meeting to be faced with a senior executive you’ve never met? Or bumping into an old friend on the way home and they ask who you’re working for now?

In all these instances, your employer will be relying on you to sell, sell, sell! But how many of us have the skills to “close the sale” in our daily interactions? More importantly, are we motivated to sell?

Firstly, the skills. Based on the examples above, all organisations need people with marketing skills outside of the sales/marketing team. Including this requirement in all job descriptions may not be the answer; but during induction or performance reviews, we need to be discussing the planned and unplanned sales opportunities employees may face. Employees should feel comfortable, confident and prepared to present their organisation in the best way to any audience. Formal sales training can be costly so an inhouse session by your finest sales/marketing guru may help to ensure every employee knows they have a “positive marketing” responsibility and the basic skills to achieve this.

Secondly, the motivation. Engaged employees will be your best salespeople. They will be the first to tell a friend to apply for a vacancy, and the most likely to demonstrate enthusiasm in a formal or informal setting. What is the sign you see in many restaurants – “if you enjoyed your experience, tell your friends; if you didn’t enjoy it, tell us”. This can apply to employees too. It’s fantastic for employees to share their positive work experiences with colleagues and friends or family outside of work. Of course there will be conversations about the bad days too, but if the employee feels that they can speak openly with their manager or any other staff member, you minimise the risk of all their conversations equating to a bad sales pitch.

If you do stop and think about all the times in your daily work that you are required to sell or market your organisation, better not forget your business and social online networks – there’s a whole other world of unplanned sales opportunities going on there!

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Volcanic Analysis – Will it take off?

May 9th, 2010

“Waiter, there’s volcanic ash in my soup. I know it’s a no-fly zone.“

The ash may be settling but the internet is still alive with jokes about the Iceland volcano airline crisis.   As is the volumes of statistics on this topic.

  • the crisis impacted 29% of global aviation and affected 1.2 million passengers a day
  • shares in Air France down nearly 7%; British Airways were down 3.11%; Lufthansa ….
  • airline revenue losses reaching $250 million a day 
  • IATA represents some 230 airlines comprising 93% of scheduled international air traffic
  • ….

All are interesting pieces of information that support the story of the paralyzed air travel in Europe and the significant financial impact to the industry, but how would an agency or organisation begin to analyze these individual pieces of data? 

Sure they could take ‘the needle in the haystack’ approach and start randomly looking for the piece of data that will give an answer, or they could collect the largest set of data possible before answering a problem – but  to avoid developing ‘analysis paralysis’ a proven method would be to conduct root cause analysis.  Basically start with a hypothesis, break it down into logical components, and then get the data needed to prove or disprove the hypothesis. 

So imagine if this process was packaged in an intuitive technology solution?  The investigation roadmap could be populated with a bank of potential causes for critical business issues which would assist analysts to deconstruct a hypothesis.  Data elements could be linked or entered to validate or invalidate causes, and potentially each validated cause could be connected to strategy recommendations for interventions.  The framework could be viewed as an extension to Inform’s soon-to-be launched ‘The Inform 100’, which will deliver organizations data framed by 100 critical human capital questions, but essentially it would assist analysts to navigate to the most obvious opportunities for organizational improvement.

“Watch this space for whether this idea remains dormant or whether it erupts.”

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Where for art thou capabilities?

April 22nd, 2010

What’s in a name? Surely a capability by any other name would smell as sweet?

Capability, competency and skill are increasingly discussed phenomena in the world of business. But what are they exactly, and are they fundamentally different from each other? In the context of Strategic Workforce Planning and forecasting the future supply and demand for them, it is unlikely. The crucial part of the discussion in terms of capability forecasting, is determining which of the desired attributes, regardless of the label will contribute to the achieving of organisational goals, and consequently, which of these attributes or lack thereof represents a risk to the organisation.

According to Wikipedia,
1. Capability is the ability to perform actions. As it applies to human capital, capability is the sum of expertise and capacity.
2. Competence is the ability to perform a specific task, action or function successfully and
3. A skill is the learned capacity to carry out pre-determined results often with the minimum outlay of time, energy, or both

The reason there is such focus on capability forecasting in Strategic Workforce Planning is that the workforce required to meet the demands of tomorrow are determined by more than the number of people that work for the organisation. It is determined by the expertise and capacity of said workforce numbers to engage in the work of the future and deliver organisational outcomes. Given the strategic nature of Workforce Planning, it is recommended that the forecasting in this space should be done with broad application at its origin, the term capability will be used to this end, recognising its nature as being the sum of expertise and capacity.

Therefore, as a Workforce Planning practitioner, it is critically important to recognise that the framework from which to forecast the desired abilities of the future workforce is immaterial. Any framework or lexicon used by the organisation with which you are working could and should be used to form a robust forecast of future workforce needs.

What then should a Strategic Workforce Planning exercise focus on in the capability space?
Logically, the reason there is a focus on capability in Strategic Workforce Planning is in order to quantify and mitigate risks to the organisation derived of a gap between the supplied and demanded capabilities of the future workforce. Understanding the capabilities required to deliver on organisational goals adds depth and colour to a forecast that numbers alone cannot provide. It’s tied to that old adage, having the right people, in the right jobs with the right skills and the right motivation at the right time. Knowledge of capabilities and how they are forecast into the future articulates far more clearly the nature of the risks to the business and aids businesses in developing strategies specifically designed to mitigate risks left open by gaps in capability.

Further, forecasting on capabilities assist an organisation to understand whether their designed future workforce is real or imagined, and given that at the highest level, capabilities are what are used by organisations to achieve their goals, it’s critical to understand not only how many people you will have but also what they will be doing to achieve said goals. Forecasting on capabilities enables an organisation to plan for the strategies they will employ to ensure that the capabilities they require in the future in time for them needing to be in operation. Some capabilities take a long time to acquire, and thus depending on the criticality of the capability and the time in the future that it will be required, organisations may be forced to buy or build different capability sets that they may not have had the capacity to plan for had capability forecasting not been conducted.

In essence, forecasting of those capabilities that are identified as being critical to the success of the organisation should be engaged in, just as the forecasting of numbers of critical job roles is a must in successful workforce planning exercises. Whether or not the organisation is possessed of a robust capability framework, the development of and organisation wide agreement to a capability framework is an essential part of the workforce planning process, just as the development of and organisation wide agreement to critical job roles is a critical piece of work before embarking on a workforce planning project. In the same way that critical job roles are identified as being those most critical to the execution of organsiational strategy, the process of forecasting on capabilities should focus on establishing the capabilities most required in delivering organisational goals and the gaps in them that form a risk to the business.

So, in the eternal words of the bard, “Capability, Capability, cast forth thy name and deny thy father…” whatever the organisation calls it, capability, competency or skill, what is important is that it has a direct impact on the productivity of the future workforce and delivers outcomes that achieve future focussed organisational goals.

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Risk has a Human Face

April 20th, 2010

I sometimes shudder when I hear HR professionals ask ‘why should HR consider risk management?’  ‘Doesn’t HR have enough to do putting out operational fires and managing their day job?’  Sure, ok, but it is also the role of HR professionals to focus on the key prioritises of the organisation.  HR is clearly missing a key ingredient if it believes risk management is someone else’s job.

During the past month, Inform ran their Insight Series across Australian capital cities on this very issue.  The latest series, entitled ‘The Risk Revolution – Strategies that generate business impact’, highlighted the fact that HR is in a prime position to ensure that organisations can deliver on business strategies.

From the last few years, we can attest, all organisations, regardless of industry, size, location or marketplace face uncertain futures as constant changes continue to shape the political, economic, social and technology landscapes across the globe.  As responsible practitioners, we should be looking to connect HR into the risk agenda of our organisations.  In an article on Risk Management and the HR Executive, Valerie Frederickson quotes HR and risk manager Donald Norris of Norris & Associates in saying “I can think of no other risk exposure that does not include a human element.  Even natural disasters can be mitigated by proper loss prevention techniques developed and implemented by staff or contractors…The two fields have to work hand in glove.”  Frederickson continues by provided a relevant example of a global organisation’s plans to open a new distribution centre and increase sales and productivity in that region.  The five key risks identified for this organisation each had a human element that emphasised to me, the importance and need for HR professionals to be involved in the identification of risks as well as the definition and analysis of the risk in terms of the human elements and potential HR initiatives to mitigate the risk.

So have you considered the face of risk in your organisation?

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Performance Reviews, Challenges, and SuccessFactors – an employee’s view

April 19th, 2010

Around three months ago I had my regular catch-up with my manager on performance objectives. Shortly afterwards I shared a less formal version of this meeting with my CEO who keeps in personal touch with each individual employee. On both these occasions I offered that I love what I do but I was looking for a new challenge within the company.

Now some three short months later all staff received news that has literally handed me my request on a plate. Infohrm will be acquired by SuccessFactors and the deal will settle in the third quarter of 2010.

It seems that if you hanker after something you might just receive it.

I’ve spent a fair bit of time since the announcement watching the reaction to the acquisition on the internet. There has been plenty of activity. These two companies already do something pretty special for their clients separately and there are some really nice synergies in a joint offering. The prospect of what they could do as a single entity is pretty compelling.

The exciting thing is that much of the reaction to this news has been positive. Obviously it’s caveated by questions around integration of technologies, service models, frameworks and organisational cultures but none the less still positive. None of these questions are concerning. It’s just about great change management. Do SuccessFactors and Inform Business Impact offer something that no one else in the world does? From where I sit it’s a given.

And for those commenting online that they missed the name change from Infohrm to Inform spare a thought for those staff who have typed the old name every day of their tenure and now have to get used to dropping the ‘h’. Old habits die hard but I think it’s a change I am pretty happy to get used to.

Now within a day of this news all staff received a reminder that the next round of performance reviews are upon us. Somehow I don’t think I am going to have any trouble coming up with my objectives for 2010!

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Workforce Planning in the Federal Government

April 13th, 2010

A new GAO report on workforce planning in the federal government illustrates several critical components of effective forecasting that profiled agencies are tackling, with varying degrees of success. These include:

1. Aligning workforce planning with strategic plans and budgets

2. Involving managers and other stakeholders in the forecasting process

3. Creating workforce plans that focus on critical roles, occupations, and skills

The release of the report coincides nicely with Inform’s Federal Government Workforce Planning Symposium, being held next Wednesday (April 21st) at the Capital Hilton hotel in Washington, DC. This complimentary breakfast session features government speakers and facilitated discussion on implementing systematic workforce plans that can address forecasted retirements, changing agency missions, and the impact of technology on job design and staff needs.

To learn more about the Symposium, which is open to any HR professional working for the federal government, contact Joe Grohovsky (joe.grohovsky@informimpact.com).

See you next week!

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Rolling Pin Planning

March 26th, 2010

A few months ago many of us were consumed by the television show MasterChef. For some it motivated us to pull out our rolling pin with a vision to perhaps make some jiaozi skins. You may ask what this has to do with HR? The key elements in an HR project and cooking a great meal are surprisingly similar.

When considering cooking a gourmet meal or implementing an HR initiative, it is seldom that you can just jump into it and create a masterpiece. You need to have a theme for the dining experience and your project needs to have a mission. You must know your diners, just as you would your project stakeholders. You must identify dietary requirements or consider potential project issues and risks and you need to check the calendar to ensure key stakeholders are available.

You may ask yourself: who will produce the goods; is the task too large for one and if so, does the team have the right competencies; who will be my audience; how will I communicate this event; and when I am done, how will I measure success – is it a plate licked clean or the return on investment on your project? Coming up with the answers is not a small task but more often than not, good execution will lead to great results!

By following the above steps an organisation should be able to excel in rollout planning, whether it be a small or large scale project or in the kitchen with your rolling pin!

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What makes an education 'revolution'?

February 22nd, 2010

What makes an education revolution?

 Leading up to the 2007 federal election in Australia, the Labour party used reforms to the Australian education system as a key policy offering to the Australian public. Dubbed the ‘Education Revolution’, these reforms consisted of a $14.7 billion investment in education over the following three years. Much attention has been paid to these reforms; they will have fundamental impacts on the future Australian labour force, with flow on effects for workforce planners globally. Since the election however, the government has also promised over $40 billion in response to the global financial crisis, and is facing rising health care costs related to population ageing. In this context, are the proposed education reforms efficient, and how can they be improved?

Many academic studies have demonstrated that although investments in the public education system may encourage income growth and equality, these outcomes are dependent on student attendance and completion of schooling. Despite the compulsory nature of primary and secondary schooling in Australia, a large proportion of Australian youth have not completed year 12.

Overall, 72 percent of 19 year olds had completed year 12 in 2006.  However, even in major cities high school completion rates do not reach 100 percent. Indeed, the more remote students are, the lower the completion rate, such that only just over one third of ‘very remote’ students completed 12 years of high school. Of even greater concern are those students who did not complete year 10, the compulsory level of schooling. In 2006, 7 percent of 15-19 year olds who were no longer attending high school had not done so, a figure which increased to 35 percent for very remote students. These results place Australia 20th amongst OECD countries in terms of school completion. In this case, rather than simply providing more financial input to the education system, a real education revolution would target the underlying factors which prevent children from attending school, the most prominent being the requirement in some families for children to earn an income. One simple suggestion in the literature is to schedule school holidays at a time when a child’s labour is most required in the family business (harvest time for farming communities, for example).

 The second issue relates to the level of public involvement in education. Supporters of the free market would criticise the extent to which the government is responsible for the provision of education, and consider the proposed education spending to be unnecessary at best, and harmful at worst. Academic studies have shown that private schools provide greater incentives for students to remain in school, for example to provide more funds for their own child’s schooling. Other authors also consider that private schools, in a deregulated system, would be better able to target their offerings to meet the needs of individual students. For most goods this would be the end of the matter, however a good such as education brings with it what economists term ‘externalities’, where the consumption of a good by an individual has flow on benefits for other individuals. Broadly speaking, the externalities associated with education include a stable and democratic society, as well as increased productivity of individuals and their co-workers. For goods with positive externalities the societal benefits of consumption outweigh the benefits to private individuals, and government intervention is justified to encourage consumption to the societal optimum.

 One compromise in this situation would be to move towards an education voucher system, shown by many studies to encourage income growth in absolute terms for all groups of society. Basically, in such a system parents receive a specified amount of money from the government which they may only use for their child’s education at a school of their choice, be it public or private. The value of the voucher can be means tested to provide greater financial assistance to lower income students of higher abilities. Such a system would allow students to attend schools which meet their needs, but also would ensure optimal investment in education. The Institute of Public Affairs in 2009 developed such a voucher model for Australia, suggesting that the education system be funded for significantly less than the cost of the current reforms.

 To be deemed a real education ‘revolution’, the government’s education reforms must go beyond financial assistance and address the structural nature of education in Australia, encouraging children to not only attend school, but to do so in a system which is designed to maximise their potential.

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Inform’s (formerly Infohrm) CEO excited about opportunity to work with SuccessFactors

February 11th, 2010

On Friday 5 February I announced the most exciting news that I have shared in my 30 years of leading Infohrm. SuccessFactors, the world’s leading business execution software company announced its intent to acquire Infohrm.

For all of us at Infohrm, this represents an opportunity to advance our mission of driving impact through better workforce information. We believe that SuccessFactors’ suite of business execution software is an ideal match for our capabilities in workforce reporting, analytics, and planning. We have always measured our success by the outcomes our customers have been able to achieve and the SuccessFactors Infohrm combination will enable us to bring an even greater level of capability to organisations.

I hope you will agree that Infohrm has a strong history of providing innovative solutions to its members. In:
 the early 80s, we were the first company to provide deep expertise and analytical rigor in workforce planning
 1991 we introduced the first annual conference series focused exclusively on workforce analytics and planning
 1997 we launched our first software-as-a-service application
 2002 we launched the HR measurement lab (later known as CLC metrics) the first joint venture that put metrics that matter under the microscope and planted the seeds for the global Infohrm community as it stands today.

And now we are pleased to be part of the first company to combine business execution software with advanced human capital analytics and planning technology.

A key element in SuccessFactors’ decision to acquire Inform was our people, our passion, and our dedication to our clients, Inform Members. This is the first acquisition SuccessFactors has ever completed and their energy in pursuing our business was extraordinary. We couldn’t be more pleased that our company met the high hurdles they set for both business performance and cultural fit. Despite our intent to grow Infohrm and our member base as a private organisation the strong alignment of values across both companies and focus on business outcomes proved too great an opportunity to pass. We look forward to providing amazing solutions as we move forward together.

We will continue to be a trusted partner, a solution provider, and a thought leader in the business community. We will also be able to deliver:

 New reporting, analytics, and planning modules which bring business and workforce information together in a way that’s never been done before
 Increased agility, responsiveness and innovation in our software as the development and product development teams align from both organisations
 Increased depth and breadth to our industry-leading benchmarks as we integrate data from 3,000 global SuccessFactors clients.

What will not change

We are changing our name to Inform – Business Impact (and our website to www.informimpact.com). Our vision has always been to deliver business impact through quality insights into your workforce. Our new name reflects that vision and emphasizes our focus on creating tangible business results for members of the growing Inform community.

Beyond the name change, we expect future changes that will reflect the increased capacity and capability of the combined organisation. With the significant growth I expect over the next few years we will see an even faster rate of growth of the functionality included in our analytics and workforce planning solutions.

The leadership team and our regional leaders, Brian Kelly (North America), Anastasia Ellerby (Asia Pacific), and I (Europe Middle East and Asia) will remain the same and we are very excited about what we will now be able to achieve through the combined entities.

Most importantly – our focus on customers – will not change. Inform will continue to offer an agnostic data extraction solution, extracting data from all types of systems including generic talent management solutions.

My wife Heather and I, started this company almost 30 years ago, and we are proud of what we have been able to achieve by providing solutions to ensure that solid workforce information is a must have, not a nice to have, in business strategy and decision making.

Both the Inform team and I can’t wait to start working with SuccessFactors to revolutionise the way business designs and executes on strategy.

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