HRM Opinion Leaders: Big challenges in a changing world

Transcription

1 HRM Opinion Leaders: Big challenges in a changing world Introduction Monizze has conducted several interviews of top HRM managers from various sectors, whether profit or not, in the course of 2012: Mobistar, STIB, Recticel, SPF Sécurité sociale, Luminus, Belgacom, Vlan, were among interviewed companies. The main objective was firstly to understand how strategic Human Capital expertise, skills, knowledge - planning was implemented in their respective organisation: how HR strategy really responded to the overall organisation strategy. Therefore, all discussions started with depicting the organisation strategy. Once outlined, the HRM organisation strategy was further outlined in pretty depth. Finally, Monizze presented key HRM challenges, or rather critical success factors for bringing an organisational profile from a current towards a desired state, in order to understand which were the most relevant ones for the organisation. Our findings: 1- Organisation strategy definitely drives the Human Capital Management and Planning; yet coping with evolving environment is a challenge 2- Best in class HR practices are in place regarding traditional HR functions, i.e. recruitment, HR Process optimisation, Labour cost management isomorphism of HR seems not applicable anymore 3- The rapid changing environment and responding organisation strategic alignment urges HR Leaders not only to adapt their organisation, processes and technologies but also evolve their overall mission within the organisation 4- The role of the HRM as a key change agent is emerging, yet not explicitly integrated within the organisation management. This role is further supported by new scientific model, e.g. from neurobiology 5- Key future area of focus are Talent management, Workforce demography & diversity planning, Leadership improvement 1. Organization strategy truly drive Human Capital Management & Planning In all cases, HR departments are explicitly building their strategic plan to best translate organisation strategic intent and priorities. The HR roadmaps are also well balanced between hard business themes and the softer ones reflecting HR main concern, i.e. the human being at the centre and how cope with emotions so as to drive performance. In hard objectives, one finds HRM organisation re-design, process improvement through digitalization, Talent planning, organisation & process re-design, Performance management Example of translation of Business objectives into HR supporting strategy can be given at STIB where client orientation strategic goal is derived into organisation supporting initiatives such as HRM response SLA definition, transparent HRM KPI measurement, 1

2 leading by example. At Mobistar, a program is in place to achieve adequacy between needed competencies and business roadmap by The soft objectives are defined along themes such as Individual development, culture strengthening, leadership stimulation, motivation stimulation, and organization values. At SPF Social Security, long-term objectives are defined with the equation: freedom + responsibility = performance + happiness. Making a distinction between soft and hard objective is of course pretty conventional as stimulating human capabilities & welfare softer aspects will drive hard results in the organisation: at Recticel performance management is stimulated through working on people attitude and adapting company culture. However, most organisations recognise that coping with ever-changing environment is a challenge: in the context of Belgacom, 80% of revenues are made on product or technologies that did not even exist 15 years ago! 2. Best in class practices are in place no latent isomorphism has been observed For the traditional HR domains such as recruitment, compensation & benefit management, labour cost management, HR process & system optimization, organisation capabilities are not only in place but also many projects or initiatives are running in a well-established continuous improvement & mature framework. Example such HR process optimization and communication through well organized intranet, dedicated HR Call Centres (for example at Belgacom), department right-sizing, e-learning, performance management, e-salary slip, etc. At Luminus, the HR organization has been adequately optimized, not only by adapting processes and headcount but also implementing payroll systems and partnership, HRM portal. We also noted the impact of organisation strategy, business context and priorities on the e-hr improvement: the extent to which HR department optimizes and digitalizes their processes is directly linked to organisation stated imperatives such as operational excellence or operational cost reduction. Therefore, one can really acknowledge that isomorphism in HR roadmaps does not apply anymore: this truly reveals the increase of business maturity from HR organisations. It is well noteworthy that level of process optimization varies from one organization to the other: although roadmaps are explicit and planned, maturity and level of achievement do vary a lot from one organisation to the other, and it seems that level of urgency does not necessarily reflects company blueprint in the market, i.e. market leadership or challenging position seems not necessarily reflect whether HR is urged to improve its processes. 2

3 3. Rapid environment evolution urges for moving from Traditional towards Strategic HR Most of interviewees recognise the need to have the role of HR evolve, from a more traditional one administrative expert towards a strategic partner or employee champion (referencing to Ulrich s Model of HRM) in a move to better respond to the changing environment of the connected world. More and more, HRM mission focuses on making sure explicit processes are in place such that employees have the necessary knowledge and skills, creating a continuous development and learning environment: part of STIB Re-tHink strategy, HRM translates continuous improvement challenge within a near to public context. As the business knowledge starts to be nurtured in the HR organization, with a rolebased example at STIB where business profiles are injected into the HR organisation-, it is equally difficult for HR to have its voice thoroughly heard for driving HR-lead initiatives through the organisation: after all, any level in the company hierarchy people managers are responsible for HR management, and should implement proposed HR improvement initiatives the reality today proves that being able to spread best practice in people management is still a challenge in most organisations. 4. The new required role of HR a Strategic Change Agent at highest level with new reference models At STIB, the HRM department plays an important rule in supporting company transformation in such a way the HRM Director became kind of Chief Transformation Officer. This goes together with the integration of profiles coming directly from business line functions. Our analysis of the evolving focuses and roles of HRM department is only pinpointing initiatives in some organizations: considering the nature of the human challenges in delivering organization value, this finding is far from being a surprise, yet the road that will allow organisation to pave the way towards having the HRM organization as a key strategic enabler is still long and widening. For most interviewed organisation, this role seems to be not very explicit yet but one can anticipate several changes in the coming years. With the advent of important discoveries in neurobiological sciences on emotions, feeling and social behaviour, giving a reference frame to cognitive psychology, and how this all allows a better understanding of the link between happiness and performance, new HRM frameworks are now available to factually improve how people the true organisation wealth perform, and as a result, how organisations deliver better results than their peers. Following the steps of Dr Damasio, neurobiologist, presenting in its book Spinoza was right - how confronting science and philosophy allows better understanding of the world and the human beings- implementing new HRM ways of managing people should soon become a source of competitive advantage. At SPF Social Security, the following mantra is distilled from the top: Don't manage. Love 3

4 Don't work. Have fun Don't think. Think green. Don't motivate. Trust Don't complain. Innovate These models will truly help the whole organization better perform: on this field, who can be better positioned to distil this kind of change on how people are managed than the HRM organisation? 5. The key challenges increasingly mobilizing HRM attention in the coming years The figure below best depicted the captured preoccupations and perceived challenges of our interviewees. Although not all themes are shared with an equal intensity among interviewed organizations, the dynamic of the challenges with regards to the future in the light of current capabilities gives a clear insight on where HRM organisations will have to build knowledge and expertize. Social Networks and media, such as Yammer have been successfully introduced resulting in unexpectedly massive adoption, even beyond the boundaries of SPF Social Security: this is developing structures and practices bridging people together across functions and organisations fostering synergies that result in performance improvement. Gamization also starts its introduction in how HRM tries to improve its communication channels and effectiveness; yet, far from all interviewees acknowledge this as being today their priority. These initiatives seem to be part of first probing steps in order to grasp a new realm of opportunities for organisation that will dramatically improve their business and social footprint in our connected world: it is our belief that HR departments are the only ones that will have the determining mission and skills to bring organisation on this promising track. 4

5 A side question As a side question during the interviews did we ask whether the organisation capability to migrate from paper to electronic meal voucher couldn t be a valid KPI for assessing the organisation ability to cope with HRM challenges, most were in vibrant agreement: a- digital era and corporate social responsibility plea for implementing modern and ecological means b- focusing HR on more strategic roles will gain from reducing non value administrative tasks c- driving change in well-balanced and constructive relation with Unions will prove to be a competitive edge of an organisation. Recommended actions - Not all organisations have yet reached the same level of maturity there is still room for improvement that can be exploited. - Thinking at HRM as a change agent in organisation and how let their role evolve will surely become a source of inspiration for leaders seeking the best for their organisation - The upcoming HRM challenges are not only an HRM department matter it matters for all organisation department: letting the voice of HRM heard on the right opportunity will surely help organisation improve the way they operate and perform on their markets or activities - Adopting new KPI s that take this into account is surely a wise recommendation. - Try the move towards electronic meal voucher and you will have a great feedback on how innovation, cost control, and social dialogue happen in your company 5