Hacking HR to Build an Adaptability Advantage
From Human Resources to Relating to Humans (RH). The 21st Century workplace will be shaped by Millennials (born 1980-2003), the largest generation in US history. Totaling 17 million more people than the Baby Boomers this group is just coming of age. For organizations to survive and succeed, attracting Millennials will be imperative, however, this generation is better educated and has access to more information than any other generation in our very short history on this planet. Millenials are driving the digital revolution and they are hacking HR from the outside.
Organizational development will be a collaborative exercise and the conversations surrounding this development is being lead by Millennials, examples of this can be seen at some of the most successful companies; Google, LinkedIn, Apple etc. One of the most important differences they bring to the workplace is their values. They demand that they feel important, supported, valued, developed and appreciated. They demand authenticity and because of this HR will need to adapt into RH.
RH encourages experimentation and learning
RH values transparency and openness
RH builds autonomy and trust
RH creates purpose and meaning
RH welcomes diversity
RH generates flexibility
RH recognizes and rewards creativity
RH is in essence collaborative
RH requires natural leadership and meritocracy
It will require leadership Bruce, most definitely. It will also require a great deal of emotional intelligence, empathy and compassion. Courage will be needed, courage to change the habits of 20th Century HR practices and processes and a realization that insanity is repeating the same things over and over again and expecting different results. Thank you Albert Einstein. To borrow another great quote that speaks directly to this hackathon, 'It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent but the one that is the most adaptable to change', Charles Darwin.
All it will take to see this idea coming about is the will to radically change and adapt, however, as we're witnessing, such change is very difficult for today's organizations to embark upon. Michelle Zanini shared a recent interview with Laszlo Bock, senior vice president of people operations at Google, in another mini hack that demonstrates the kind of change that's possible http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/20/business/in-head-hunting-big-data-may-...
Hi Nigel, agreed...
>courage to change the habits of 20th Century HR practices and processes
Do you have any new processes or habbits in mind that might help bring this change about? I'm always reminded of this quote from Dave Snowden who adds a great context for exploring changes like these...
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Scaling and sustainability have always been the issue with methods that depend on changing the people rather than the process. You might achieve the change in an individual or a group of people for a period, but until you imbed the new way of thinking into the heart and soul of an organisation such change is only temporary. Unfortunately and ironically heart and soul changes are normally achieved more through process than through people. They are easier to understand, easier to implement and accordingly such approaches dominate in government and industry alike.
That's a great interview btw, certainly puts a lot of myths to bed, at least at Google, if not elsewhere....
There are some process examples in this hackathon, talent search, on-boarding etc that would help bring about the cultural habits of an adaptable organisation. Leading by example, reverse mentoring, social collaboration and greater transparency will help change processes that have become harmful and only exist to perpetuate the dominating culture. Many organisations today rely on annual appraisals for performance reviews, these processes need to be updated to reflect the millennial need for constant feedback, annual appraisals are particularly harmful to morale.
Hi Nigel,
Got you.
Another angle on the process piece is that a fair number of mainstream and very contemporary business processes have been developed in-house at a single company, before being publicised and their use adopted more widely. I wrote of 7 examples I could find in one of my hacks (6 Processes for HR Transformation - look under the Historical Context heading).
Further to this, I've been discussing the idea of a CIPD facilitated skunkworks as one of the next activities after the hack has finished. If this does get off the ground, then the historical lessons above might help turn the hacks into more substantive processes and interventions that ultimately benefit the whole of the function.
Here's a great example of how millennials are changing the workplace..
http://blogs.cioinsight.com/it-management/millennials-change-everything....
Thanks Nigel, I'm not sure how much the demographic shift and different value set is going to help/enhance/hack HR though - the link seems a bit tenuous to me? I also found a recent research piece that basically refuted much of the message about millennials, but typically, when you need it, you can't find it!
I think the link is that HR professionals that are running HR are still baby boomers, imagine coming up against the kind of business like Uber, HR becomes more or less irrelevant. It's not so much the demographics as the approach to business strategy in the 21st century, all the normal rules are being smashed. Adapt or die.
http://www.inc.com/magazine/201307/christine-lagorio/uber-the-car-servic...
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