This is the time of year when the turkey is a recent plump memory, the mince pies are all gone, the Christmas recycling is on an industrial-scale, and the champagne is in the fridge ready to bring in the New Year.  

A question I usually ask myself is What will I Stop, Start and Continue doing the following year?

I find this is a useful exercise to carry out both personally and professionally.

So why not get some of that old Christmas present wrapping paper out, write down those activities and ask yourself the following :
 

What activities will I Stop doing ?

By this, I don’t mean the post-Christmas detox activities, like drinking horrible tea and running round the block.  In a work context, list the activities and ask yourself – what would happen if you stopped doing this?  

This is your New Year spring clean, clearing out the clutter to free up space to focus on better things.

So once you have done this, and crossed out a chunk of activities, (you will still need to pay people, so payroll stays on the Continue list, nice try!).  Of course, most of what you do is valuable so will stay on the Continue list.

Now the fun bit, you have now created some space and energy, so think about What are the activities that you will Start doing in 2013 ?

Download our Stop, Start, Continue Worksheet below:

Here are some of our HR candidates to consider Stop and Start doing in 2013, we look forward to hearing yours.

HR Candidates to STOP
1.    The Annual Performance review – is this a meaningless paper chain, with low-value conversations with no discernible increase in productivity? If so, then dump it.
2.    Engagement Survey and Action Plan.  Can you really demonstrate that this activity improves productivity, happiness or just improves the survey results every year?  Cause and effect is too difficult to discern, so is time to do something more effective instead?
3.    Doing ‘line-managers work’ with basic employee performance issues. You have rolled out the training, had a ‘hand-holding period’ of 6 months to help less confident managers.  Is now the time to take the hard decision and ask yourselves, if a Line Manager can’t do this now, then do they need to move on?
4.    Creating reports that add no value whatsoever. Unless there is a business reason, stop producing them and see what happens…

HR Candidates to START
1.    Conduct a “meaningful work” review.  Ensure every employee understands how their work fits into the "Why" of your organisation.  Get this right and you will have much more productivity, satisfaction and better results than putting free fresh fruit in the canteen!
2.    Review your HR Strategy to ensure it aligns with the latest Organisation Strategy (which has the habit of changing every quarter)
3.    Conduct a HR Assessment – do you know how much it costs to delivery your HR Services, compared to leading outsourcers or even your competitors?
4.    Check the HR Technology market for Talent Management tools and ditch those awful spreadsheets.
5.    Make more of an effort with Finance and IT…you will always need them, they will always need you…..surprise the CFO and take them out to dinner.
6.    Find out what your Managers really think about HR service – conduct a HR Importance vs Effectiveness Survey to help you hone in on what the priorities should be in 2013.
7.    Ring up your HR Transformation Consultant to help you set-up a successful HR Change Programme in 2013

Whatever you Stop, Start and Continue in 2013, I hope it is a happy and prosperous year for you professionally and personally.

In our article on Working Late – The Impact of an Ageing Workforce we highlighted some research initiatives in this area.

A key question for us is:

“What is the future impact of an ageing workforce on HR?”

For HR departments, the ageing workforce is a very current topic with a focus on developing retirement policy in line with regulations, pay and pension reviews and recruitment policy to avoid complex age discrimination cases. This research on the ageing workforce also raises longer-term questions for future HR Operating Models.  In HR, how do we ensure structures, services and tools are reasonably future proof to deliver organisational goals today and in the future?

An ageing workforce will impact current Talent Strategy, for example attracting applications from older workers and supporting recruiters to change their perception of older workers.  A clear theme from the Working Late interviews was “homeostasis of career” – workers happy to do their role with no prospect of promotion.  It is a challenge for organisations to manage the uncertainty around the end of employees working lives.  What will be the impact on the Talent pool?  Line Managers need support in managing performance and improving productivity of older workers to build diverse inter-generational teams.

Our view is we need to rethink our change management approach when dealing with different generations of workers. Even though the change management principles may remain the same, it is clear that different tactics are required with older workers than when dealing with Generation Y.

Some challenging questions for HR professionals are “How do we ensure we have a good understanding of our own workforce, so we can anticipate changes?”, “How robust is your HR data, are you able to conduct analysis on your workforce, including age and skills profiling?”  For some, this puts an uncomfortable spotlight on current HR Systems.

We encourage the periodic review of HR tools and technology to support a productive workforce, but before we “bet the farm” on our new HR Technology Mobile strategy, we need to assess whether this will be successful for all our categories of workers or is a different approach needed.

There is evidence that there is discrimination against both younger and older workers, for example research by the UK Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), Attitudes to Age in Britain 2010.

One issue for HR is how to best fight discrimination and negative attitudes to older workers. Any attempt to change attitudes is complex and part of the solution should be to highlight the benefits of employing older workers.  These include retention of key organisational knowledge and skills, and opportunities for coaching and mentoring.

In summary, the ageing workforce is one factor of many influencing future HR Operating Models, however we do need to think about:

1.    Clarity in roles around what we expect HR and Line Managers to do around key organisational activities such as improving performance and productivity.

2.    Choosing the right tools and technology to enable us to manage our workforce, from excellent analytics, to skills tracking and performance management.

3.    Deciding as an organisation, how you will deliver excellent change management.

We would be very interested to hear examples of how your organisation is dealing with some of these challenges? 

When I get older losing my hair,
Many years from now,
Will you still be sending me a payslip,
Performance review and benefits plan?

*Loosely based on the work of Sir Paul McCartney

In 2020, nearly a third of the UK workforce will be over 50.

The idea of working into our later years is not a new one, but it has significant knock on effects for the future of work.

The UK is not alone – this pattern also continues across much of Europe.  This means that HR Directors and other leaders must recognise the need to explore the challenge of the ageing workforce.

Sir Paul McCartney celebrated his 64th birthday 8 years ago and shows no signs of slowing down.  For every millionaire, there will be millions of workers who are eligible to retire but will not necessarily be financially able to do so.  The number of older workers will only increase as time goes on as retirement age steadily creeps up.

To this end a research project has been created at Loughborough University called simply
“Working Late”. It aims to explore the various issues and concerns around older workers and develop strategies to ensure we have productive and healthy environments for the older workforce, and is funded by the New Dynamics of Ageing Programme.  The research project is led by Professor Cheryl Haslam, Director of the Work and Health Research Centre.

Since the number of older workers above the age of 50 is more than double the number of younger workers under the age of 25, it’s clear that this research has come at an opportune time.

Aunty Doris attends “Back to Work Training”

Working Late takes a pro-active view to establishing connections with workers and various other agencies including The Age and Employment Network. Working Late held a series of expert panels involving a range of experts from HR management, employment law, occupational health, transport and academia.  Glass Bead Consulting was invited to provide a perspective on the impact of demographic changes on the design of future HR organisations.

Working Late’s research ranges from influencing government policies to more practical solutions.  For example, one study highlighted that UK workers spend an average of five hours and 41 minutes at their desk in a work day. Dr Myanna Duncan, from Loughborough University, warned that office workers literally “forget to stand” spending nearly as long at their desks as they were sleeping in bed!  Given the musculo-skeletal problems in the workforce, this is a clear warning that we need to get out of our chairs more and talk face-to-face instead of using email.

The researchers from the Working Late Research Group looked into some of the challenges of later life working, and conducted 108 semi-structured interviews with employers, employees, job seekers and recently retired.  Here is a copy of the presentation which formed the basis of discussion at the expert panels, Working Late – Dynamics of Later-Life Working. The quotes from participants make for interesting reading:

“..It’s kind of awful to think that people are going to end their careers going down a capability route of disciplinary because they are no longer capable of doing the role that’s required of them because they are older. No one wants to performance manage out an older worker as they’re reaching the end of their career […] regardless of legislation everyone wants careers to end with dignity.
(Employer, 42)

“They [older workers] tend to stay with us for a longer period of time. So they’ve got to a stage often in their career where the content of their role is just as important as actually being promoted.”
(Employer, 48)

The themes emerging from the interviews included career development, homeostasis of career, new identities of ageing in relation to retirement, pensions, job-seeking and economic outlook.  All of which will eventually have a profound impact on us all.

What does this mean for HR?

For HR, the ageing workforce is a current issue with much on-going work on developing retirement policy in line with regulations, pay and pension reviews and recruitment policy.  In addition, many HR departments are dealing with complex age discrimination cases, see for example this article in Personnel Today, “Cases in point: guidance on retiring employees”.

Managing an ageing workforce is one factor of many influencing future HR Operating Models. It is important to understand your workforce profile now and against where it will be in 5 years’ time against your organisation needs, and also reviewing HR Strategy through the lens of each customer group; from Generation Y to older workers.

Also, read our follow-up article The Impact of an Ageing Workforce on HR.

What you can do

- Follow Working Late on Twitter @workhealth
- Visit www.workinglate.org for more detailed updates
- Get Aunty Doris to update her profile on LinkedIn…?
- Subscribe by email to the HR Transformer Blog to ensure you read future articles which will look at the changing workforce on HR

It’s only a week after we were gripped by a great sporting comeback in the Ryder Cup in Medinah, Illinois and once again our focus is back in Chicago, this time for the HR Technology Conference and Expo, which starts on Monday 8thOctober.

There is talk of “disruption” in the way we manage the people in our organisations led by new tools and technologies. Plus there are exciting developments with HR in the cloud, Social in the Enterprise, Analytics (including Big Data) and of course, Mobile Technology.

The HR Technology industry is in ebullient mood after some big trophies have changed hands in the Wall Street clubhouses. These include :-

SAP purchasing Success Factors
Oracle buying Taleo
IBM procuring Kenexa
Plus of course, Workday launching its IPO

But back on the fairway, away from the conferences, the analysts, and the business press – implementing HR Technology successfully does have its challenges. Selecting the right technology platform with the right functionality is hard enough. Guessing where your business and your workforce will be in the next 5 years and then persuading your sceptical Line Managers that this will help them in their job is even harder. If in doubt, see how well you get on with this useful list of HR Technology Questions from Naomi Bloom.

But, for every perfect delivery there is a bogey.

It is all too easy to get bedazzled by exciting innovations and disruptions taking place, whether in the clouds or by ‘belly putters’. The fact that 68% of technology projects fail, because companies forget their ‘basic swing’ hitting a few unexpected Bogeys along the way! The good news is that HR have crucial skills to bring on the people side of the project that are so critical to success.  HR can lead projects with confidence, avoid the bunkers, and ultimately become Technology Champions.

Although I can’t make the HR Technology Conference Expo this year, we here at Glass Bead Consulting, have played a few tough rounds over the years in the HR Transformation Cup. Here are some reflections from the HR Clubhouse we have come up with to help with your handicap and ensure project success.

1  Agree how decisions will be made during the technology implementation

So the first big decision went OK.  At the beauty parade, the software company wheeled in their best salesperson and your Finance Director and Technology Director were impressed enough with the pitch to go with your recommendation for Fusion/SAP/Workday/other. You didn’t really have to revert to your evaluation criteria and weightings, but they still gave the right answer. First job done – now comes the hard bit…

As you get into delivery, you will have to make a number of decisions along the classic project management triangle of ‘Time vs Scope vs Cost’. Often there will be competing demands on your budget, resistance in unplanned areas and resourcing conflicts. At this point the last thing you need is any delay, with 10 expensive Fusion/SAP/Workday consultants on the project, you’ve calculated their burn rate on the train to work (but didn’t tell anyone).

It is critical to spend time up front working through how decisions will be made on the project, who will make them and what the escalation path will be. Governance is key in any substantial project. Make sure a clear governance structure has been agreed up from the onset, and ensure there is a business sponsor to help iron out issues.  Decide who will be on your Governance Board and what their role will be.

When you get going, on occasions you will hit the ball into the rough, and will need to have some difficult conversations on scope, timings, budgets. You will want to remind everyone the terms they agreed at the beginning of the project.

2  It’s the People, Stupid

Start thinking about the change strategy right at the beginning. The Technology Account Manager will make the deployment sound so easy, if mentioned at all. However, think carefully about all your stakeholders, what they need from this change, what their concerns will be, start rehearsing your messages and arguments because you will need to start them soon.

In our experience, to develop an effective change strategy is a canny mix between the high-level, for example, ensuring the change is couched in your organisational goals, and the low-level, getting out a monthly project update, keeping the intranet portal up to date and so on.

Ensure that when you construct your budget and programme team, you have allocated enough resources to communications, change and training expertise – but you work in HR, so you know this right?

3  Agree the goals of the project

Then ‘tattoo’ them somewhere strategic, well at least get them printed on some nice mouse mats or put some posters up. There are many reasons to put in a new HR System and different stakeholders will have diverse drivers and see the benefits in different places. Irrespective if this is to deliver a transformational change in people management, consolidating different systems of records, or to enable employee self-service. Get consensus up front on the goals of the project, show how these goals links to your overall organisational strategy and your HR Strategy.

The new system is ultimately there to delivery HR goals and ultimately make the organisation more successful.

When you get into the project, a few shots will inevitably be hit in the bunker, and there will be crunchy decisions to make, but make sure you can revert to a compelling vision and goals for the project. Also ensure your sponsors agree with these and communicate them widely.

And finally, make sure that ‘the tattoo’ is temporary.

4  It’s still the People, Stupid  – Identify what skills you will require

The skills needed to run HR are not the same as those needed to transform HR. Review how you will get the skills and experience required in programme management, process design, technical skills, support knowledge, change management. Then work out when these will be needed and for how long those skills are needed. Do a skills audit and work out the gaps – but this should be easy as you run HR.

You will need to fill the gaps, identify all the team members, considered the progression of roles, procured any external contractors or consultants and developed training courses.

Remember, your project team capability has the biggest impact on success not necessarily the software.

5  Define your HR Operating Model and HR Processes

It is important to know what flavour of operating model your new technology will be supporting in the future. Will there be changes to what you expect Line Managers, your workforce, your HR Business Partners to do? What is the scope of the HR shared service centre and how much might be delivered by 3rd parties in the future? It is vital that your new system will support this.

At Glass Bead Consulting, we have developed a HR Process Inventory which details every HR service, and who should be doing what in the new operating model. We found this tool really helps our clients stick to what it really needed in terms of requirements. A HR Process Inventory helps flush out ownership and interface issues at a process level, before it becomes a problem for the System Design.

It is easy to forget that typically a new technology system might not deliver real benefits for many months or years, once you have completed an eye-watering amount of data cleansing and trained the Line Managers to use the technology correctly. Unfortunately, for large global projects, by the time the system is fully operational the HR Strategy, and HR Operating required to support it might have changed anyway.

By clearly articulating your HR Operating Model and HR Process Model you can reduce the risk that they system is not fit for the future.

Finally – don’t let the Tail wag the Dog. The biggest mistake of technology projects is to let the system lead the process you will be delivering to your customers!  Our firm belief is HR has valuable skills in Change Management, Training, Communications, sourcing the right people and resources to drive any projects, including IT system implementation. Increasingly, HR also need to be Technology Champions to avoid those expensive bogeys.

It would be great to let us know what you think, or share lessons learned, on the blog or #HRTechConf

Your loyal HR Transformation caddy,
@AndySpence

1. Stop, Start & Continue – A Guide for HR Transformers

What will you Stop, Start & Continue in 2011?  Includes a useful PDF worksheet.

2. HR Transformation Articles of the Month

Add this link to your Bookmarks and browse over 90 different articles.  We trawl through the web to bring you a selection of the most interesting HR Transformation articles of the month. 

3. Future Trends in HR Operating Models

If you enjoyed reading this, check out our longer articles on What the future holds for HR , on Evaluation Centre (free, easy registration required).   Downloadable PDF article about the trends shaping future HR Operating Models.

4. HR Benchmarks – A Government Health Warning

Very topical subject, we did some analysis on UK Government HR benchmarks and attached the data in this article.  The original statistics have disappeared from the Government website, so we have had quite a few hits from Whitehall.  Also featured in the first online edition of HR Magazine.

5. HR Transformers on Twitter

11 Lists of great people to follow on Twitter, including consultants, HR practitioners, leaders, writers, analysts, techies and teachers.

6. Are you a HR Twitter Virgin?

Do you still know people in HR who have not used Twitter, surely not!  Here is a useful guide to get them started….

7. Top 5 Reasons HR Projects Fail

A golden oldie, but are we still making the same mistakes ?

8. HR Outsourcing – The Challenge of Picking Winners

In choosing a HRO vendor, a key question is How do you know they will last the course?

9. Why England Lose – Talent Management Insights from Football

Inspired by the World Cup, what can we learn from studying the management of football?

10. HR Survey Highlights Skills Gaps in HR

Very useful annual survey from ADP/HROA, see also this years findings in HR Transformation Delivers solid Savings of 25%

You can subscribe below to every new HR Transformer Blog article which will be delivered direct to your inbox.

1. In Search Of HR Tech Best Practices, by Naomi Bloom

2. The Future of Human Resources and Social Media, by Sharlyn Lauby, aka HR Bartender, on Mashable

3. HR Costs Rebounding?   from Michael O'Brien in HRE Online  

4.  Performance management: looking in the wrong place from Glyn Lumley, aka HR Maverick 

5. Service Levels for HR Services Delivery – An Evolution, from Jim Koenig – Equaterra

6. A systems thinking guide to outsourcing for the sceptical public sector leader, from the Systems Thinking Review

7. Is HR too big to innovate?, from J.Keith Dunbar, from DNA of Human Capital blog

8. Mobile Apps are Ringing up HRO, Linda Merritt from HRO Insights Blog

9. What Next for HR, Connecting HR at HRO Europe, from HR Transformer Blog

10.  Shared HR services the way forward for local authorities

1.  The surprising truth about what motivates us – Daniel Pink presentation for the RSA

A refreshing and inspiring bit of communication is summed up as  “Our motivations are unbelievably interesting” – we couldn’t agree more.

2. If I could change one thing about HR – Guest posts on XpertHR from "Grumpy Lecturer" and Dr Anne Marie McEwan

Well done to Michael Carty et al at XpertHR for this stimulating series of articles.  

3. 13 Lessons from HR Shared Services Implementations  – from Human Resources IQ

4.  37 productivity tip for working from anywhere – from Mashable

5. The 20 second rule - from Charlie Judy at HRFishbowl Blog

6. Management Methods, Models and Theories – from Value Based Management

7. IT and HR: should they merge? – from Dan Pontefract at TrainingWreck blog

8. Does your HR function complicate things? – from Ron Ashkenas at Harvard Business Review

It was probably a lot worse when there were multiple organisations all managing complicated processes. HR Transformation does deliver benefits and cost savings by standardising and simplifying processes – see our recent article on HR Transformation delivers solid savings of 25% according to survey. This article comes up with some useful advice for those transforming their HR functions.

9. Naomi's Questions For Oracle OpenWorld 2010 – from Naomi Bloom at In Full Bloom

10.  Hey, aren’t I the customer here? – from 1.00 FTE

This cartoon rang a bell – tell the vendors what you want to hear in the presentation…

         If you could change one thing about HR, what would it be?

         What will managing tomorrow’s people will be like in 2020?

         With large change programmes, should we “transform” or “tweak”?

         Is SaaS in HCM all that it is cracked up to be?

         Finally, if management consultants are so bad, why are they still around?

1.  Managing Tomorrow’s People. The future of Work to 2020 – from PwC

2.  Debunking Some HCM SaaS Myths – from Jim Holincheck @ Gartner

For those interested in this subject, check out “HRO SaaS Uptake – What, How Much and Where?” making the link to HR Outsourcing, from Gary Bragar at HRO insights.

3. If I could change one thing about HR – Guest post from Glyn Lumley on XpertHR

What would you change about HR? This is a great ‘guest post’ on XpertHR from Glyn Lumley, otherwise known as the writer of the HR Maverick Blog. There have been lots of interesting responses, but this was our favourite so far. Find out “Why” we think this was a thought provoking article. 

Well done to the XpertHR team for posing this great question and opening it up to Guest Bloggers Contact Michael Carty if you would like to contribute your response.

4.  Turn Your HR Audit into a Strategic Audit – from Cathy Missildine-Martin at Profitability through Human Capital blog

5.  The Future of HR - Mark Stelzner at Inflexion Advisors

According to Mark, HR has 3 paths to choose from : “do nothing”, “break it apart” or “radically transform”.   Read the 20 page slide deck and decide which option makes most sense for your organisation.

6. Your Workplace in 2020: Gartner's Predictions – from the New York Times

7. Think Big, Act Smart Reducing Uncertainty in Transformational Change – from Booz & Co

8. In The Know v1.29 Transformation in HR – from John Sumser from Two color Hat

9. Importance versus Effectiveness Gap…Closing…Slowly – from Keith Dunbar – The DNA of Human Capital

10.  If management consultants are so bad, why are they still around?  – from Rick at Flip Chart Fairy Tales

Finally, a question we ask ourselves every morning on our way to work!  Who better to address it than Rick from Flip Chart Fairy Tales.