It’s surprising how little attention gets paid to the people in an organization. All of the falderal about weighing in on strategy seems to lose sight of HR’s fundamental role: the care, feeding and cultivation of the people in the organization. All tools, from software to compliance regulations are guides in this fundamental mission.
This week’s links are designed to make you think about some of the aspects of the real human part of HR.
The Consortium provides a forum for people to figure out emerging practices in architecture, implementation and deployment of SaaS in HR. The idea is to create a collegial space that allows members to capitalize on each other’s experience. Members have the opportunity to learn about emerging trends in the market and to build a network of contacts with industry leaders.
We talked briefly about the people who influence HR. Jay pointed quickly to the CEOs of software companies and senior execs in the large consultancies. The vendors have better visibility into smart approaches and have more control of the look and feel of implementation than any of the folks inside an HR function. Whitehead’s view is that the levers that drive most HR performance are well outside the walls of the company.
As I’ve moved through the process of interviewing people in the Top 100 Influencers project, I’ve noticed this same thing. The people who work in HR are not as influential as those who work on it. Whitehead’s perspective is illuminating. The people who work outside the company’s HR Department all tell stories that people live in.
The HR Software Ecosystem is a complex maze of silos. There are Fully featured suites, HRIS, Recruiting Tools,Assessment Toolkits, Performance Management Systems, Compensation Management Tools, Learning Systems, Labor Markets, Crowd Sourcing, Collaboration, Workforce Planning and Analytics. Some of these services maintain the status quo while others move the ball forward. In a world where standing still is death and incremental improvement is a baseline strategy, we are looking for the tools that really make a difference.
Technology is changing the way that HR operates and the terrain that it covers. The tools that we are implementing are shaping our views of the function itself. Some of them simply automate existing processes. Others unleash unseen synergies and are the engines of transformation.
At the HRDemo Show this December 8th and 9th, we will announce the winners of the First Annual HR Tektonic awards. These awards are given to companies whose services disrupt and innovate. The awards are given to technologies and suites that change the way the game is played.
HRDemo Show
Have you ever seen a demo come off without a hitch? There’s something about the combination of people trying to make a good impression and technology that creates really funny moments. Implicit in the notion of a software demonstration is the idea that there will be some level of failure. All software breaks during a demo. It’s a law of nature.
What’s amazing about those moments of failure is that they show you the true nature of the team behind the software.
When things go wrong, what surfaces is the corporate culture, the way the organization handles problems, embarrassments, and other snafus. More than anything else, what you want to know about a potential subcontractor is how they behave under these circumstances. How people behave during a s**tstorm is one of the most important things you can discover.
There’s something about breaking bread that appeals to a timeless side of us. I get the sense from these experiences that it must be just as enriching today as it was eons ago. Over the summer HRExaminer hosted two Salon Dinners in Boston and then New York City. It was a great chance for Human […]
Read The Weekly HRExaminer v1.37 Now Feature | What’s the Objective by Neil McCormick As an HR leader, have you craved a consistent set of metrics that directly linked HR’s actions to your company goals? As a CEO Neil McCormick felt this pain directly. So like you he went looking for answers. For the last […]
Conventional wisdom is usually a disaster. An organization full of people with a solid work-life balance is liable to be both stress and profit free. As long as engagement is a surrogate for lower wages, it’s going to be a suspicious variable.
User Generated (free) material, the heart of Marketing 2.0, Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0 and Work 2.0. The whole version 2.0 thing seems to be a wealth transfer scheme. Out of the pockets of users and employees and into the pockets of their organizations. The collaboration backbone depends on a level of commitment that could only be understood as workaholism.
Yesterday’s piece talked about how useful the music business is for understanding talent, drive and luck and how the three interplay. The following letter appeared in Bob Lefsetz’ blog (I’ve asked for permission to reprint his stuff occasionally). It chronicles the early success of a band committed to making it.
As you read the letter, understand that you are seeing an example of that elusive thing that isn’t desire or passion. It’s the will to succeed, the capacity to convert hardship into opportunity, the willingness to fully utilize the resources you have in pursuit of a dream.
Ask yourself how your operation helps people find this thing in the people they hire and cultivate.
When employers speak of finding passionate employees, they’re usually looking for people who will work for a discount. If you really love your work, you’ll do it for love and not money, or so the thinking goes. If you don’t think this is true, ask anyone who is on the passion bandwagon whether or not they pay extra for passion. They don’t. Ever.
Yesterday, we took a look at the difference between talent and desire. The crazy level of emphasis on talent is distorting sound business practice. There’s something big missing from the conversation. The desire to succeed always produces superior work where talent is simply a question of potential.
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