The Rise of HR Influencers
LinkedIn
November 24, 2019
A lot has changed for the People function on the threshold of 2020. HR enters the next decade powered by new technology, digitization and scientific breakthroughs. HR needs to better position itself to claim its own role in the economy of the future with less naïveté about the wonders of technology and more pragmatism about what it would take to change the workplace. Instead of chasing trends, HR needs to learn to work with the paradoxes. There are seven paradoxes of note for HR on my personal list for 2020—one of which we will dive into more deeply.
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Tags: Management, HR, Future of Work
Recalibrating Workforce Planning for the 21st Century Organization
LinkedIn
September 28, 2019
Read my Perspectives in the fall 2019 volume of People+Strategy Journal focusing on the evolving practice of Workforce Planning.
Traditionally, workforce planning was left to supervisors’ year-end recruitment and replacement considerations while the finance function accounted for “people” plans in the footnote to the annual budget report. In today’s economy, understanding and predicting the workforce trends, costs, and investments has risen to the top of every CEO’s strategic agenda. Twenty-first century workforce issues encompass a broad, complex, and far reaching set of strategic business challenges from labor shortages and ever accelerating skills obsolescence to skills renewal needs, the expanding gig economy, and the end of retirement as we know it. Today’s workforce planning is one of business’s most urgent priorities and HR leaders are stepping up with data-driven and technology-enabled solutions transforming this legacy people management practice for modern needs.
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Tags: Management, HR, Future of Work
Elevating the Employee’s Voice to the Top of the Organizational Agenda
LinkedIn
July 03, 2019
Read my Perspectives in the summer 2019 issue of People+Strategy Journal.
Have you ever kept silent while harboring a deep sense of unfairness? Have you ever felt powerless against the inequities of organizational politics? Have you ever wondered why some speak up and act on their values, and do so effectively, while others remain silent? What do leaders and organizations need to do to make sure the employees’ voice is heard?
Our select panel of scholars, practitioners, and consultants reflect on the current state of organizational practice, highlighting the critical role that leaders, managers, and employees collectively play in elevating the employee’s voice to the top of the organizational agenda.
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Tags: Management, HR, Future of Work
The Adaptability Challenge
LinkedIn
April 06, 2019
The evolutionary lore of the “survival of the fittest” has taken on a radically new meaning in the digital age we live in. If the adage conjured up an image of survival at all cost only a couple of decades ago, the Darwinian maxim has been disrupted in this millennium. To think of it, the word “fittest” today seldom means the most aggressive or the largest. On the contrary, it can mean anything from the most innovative and entrepreneurial to customer-focused and even to the most cooperative.
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Tags: Management, HR
Inside-Out People Analytics
LinkedIn
January 06, 2019
Analytics and technology are exactly the magic wands talent professionals have been searching for decades. Data and digital are telling the untold story of people, teams, and organizations and helping turn insights into action. The challenge of measuring the intangibles is attracting the new type of professionals to HR. Technologically savvy and behaviorally curious quants and tech entrepreneurs are challenging traditional tenets of HR from outside the profession while Chief Technology Officers are becoming HR’s key allies inside organizations helping to transform how companies behave, not just what they sell.
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Tags: Analytics, HR
How Start ups Grow up: One Culture at a Time
LinkedIn
July 03, 2018
Read my quarterly column Perspectives in People+Strategy Journal focused on the role of culture in start ups.
The grown-ups of the Silicon Valleyare the first ones to admit that coming of age in the “hood” has taught them some tough lessons about growing up on steroids. Media coverage aside, break rooms with pool tables, dry cleaning services, and even unlimited food supply are no longer the perks that attract restless entrepreneurial talent.
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Tags: Innovation, Startups, HR
The Promise and Peril of Teams
LinkedIn
April 06, 2018
Spring issue of People+Strategy Journal "Accelerate Success Through Teams". Read my Perspective here.
If you have ever been on a high performing team, you would know what such a team looks like. An engaged and uplifting culture makes showing up at work every day exciting. You bring your whole self to work, and your skills complement your teammates. They have your back as you have theirs. Why is it then that this kind of team is rare? Why do so many teams struggle to work well together as personalities clash?
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Tags: Management, Leadership, Future of Work
Why Is HR Pursuing 'Agile Lite'?
LinkedIn
March 16, 2018
Steve Denning: In my article, “Can HR Be Agile?” I reviewed the recent Harvard Business Review (HBR) article by Professors Peter Cappelli and Anna Tavis about the status of HR’s progress toward agility. I talked recently with the professors about their article, particularly their conclusion that in most cases, HR is pursuing “agile lite,” applying the general principles of Agile “without adopting all the tools and tools and protocols from the tech world.”
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Tags: HR, Agile
HR Goes Agile
LinkedIn
February 23, 2018
Agile isn’t just for tech anymore. Peter Cappelli and I explore in detail how HR is going 'agile lite' in the HR goes agile article @HarvardBusinessReview (March -April 2018) We show how HR is applying the general agile principles without adopting all the tools and protocols from the tech world. Agile has been working its way into other areas and functions, from product development to manufacturing to marketing—and now it’s transforming how organizations hire, develop, and manage their people.
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Tags: HR, Agile
Talent Management: the End of the Era or the Dawn of the New Age?
LinkedIn
January 08, 2018
Some of us in HR would argue that classic Talent Management has passed its prime. If a decade ago talent calibrations and the 9-Box grids were all the rage and high potentials (HiPos) ruled the management universe, the conversation today has shifted to the more inclusive models of the management. Employee engagement, organizational culture, gender and racial equity in the workplace are the themes of today. Implicit biases have been brought to light, performance ratings have been challenged and continuous feedback and “manager as a coach” approaches aim at lifting everyone’s performance. Organizations hire for growth mindset and set up choice architectures for employees to do the right thing without the administrative coercion. Will Talent Management as a practice survive and what might it look like in the organizations of the future?
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Tags: Management, HR