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Why England Lose – Talent Management Insights from Football

AndySpence — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 17:57:20 +0000

For England fans the World Cup is sadly over, our ears have recovered from the din of Vuvuzelas, and once again the England team has fallen from its precipice of unrealistic expectations.

The question of the day is “Why do England lose?”

To answer this, rather than ask the usual football pundits, we look to our ‘dismal’ friends the economists. Usually found researching and thinking about stagflation, economic stimulus and other boring stuff, when they turn their inquisitive minds to football, we discovered some interesting insights. From their findings we have identified some broader talent management lessons.

“Why England Lose: And other curious phenomena explained” is a book by Simon Kuper who writes a weekly sports column in the Financial Times and Stefan Szymanski, a Professor of Economics and MBA Dean at Cass Business School in London. The book draws on geography, economics, statistics and psychology.

The answer to the question of why England lose at football, is of course – they don’t. The authors did some number crunching on historical data of football games and using regression analysis determined how much of a given outcome (winning football games) can be related to a other factors (wealth, population size, footballing experience, home advantage). The authors suggest that England are in fact over-performing.

The authors came up with some interesting findings about football, which we think poses some interesting lessons for management and in particular talent management. Sport played at the highest level really hones management techniques as every win and loss is played out in public. Getting the most out of your people is crucial, with small differences in individual performance making or breaking a season (and of course a towns’ collective heart).

The authors also looked to case studies of teams that have had great success, they looked for structural reasons rather than individual greatness or prowess.

Some lessons come from Olympique Lyon, who have progressed from a relatively obscure provincial club to rule French football, winners of Ligue 1 from 2001/2 until 2007/8. In England in 1979/1980, this occured with Nottingham Forest (before then even less known in football terms than Lyon) who won consecutive European Cups with the footballing management duo Bryan Clough and Peter Taylor. More recently there are lessons from another modern French thinker of football, Arsene Wenger, the Arsenal Manager.

The authors highlighted 12 main secrets of the football transfer market, and from these we have pulled out 8 broader talent management lessons for you :-

1 – A new manager wastes money. Typically the new manager wants to make their mark by buying and selling players. This is usually disruptive to the team, with the manager unlikely to stay around long enough for this tactic to pay dividends. Would you let your new Executive ‘hire and fire’ and bring in their own team in the first few weeks? Or get them to utilise the existing resources, understand their strengths and weaknesses before filling capability gaps to match your strategy?

2 – Stars of recent World Cups are overvalued. You can pick the player who dazzles for their country in the big tournament, playing for their national pride, but will they deliver on a cold, wet evening in Blackburn in November? A new recruit is “only as good as their last project” this cliché is simply not true. Don’t be dazzled by the last project – look for a consistent pattern of performance.

3 – Centre-Forwards are overvalued – goalkeepers are undervalued. Do you have to pay more for some roles because you are told you have to pay more for that particular ‘in demand’ new skill? Isn’t it more important to get the best people who delivery the core elements and pay them appropriately? Don’t be blinded by the flashy or those who ‘talk a good game’ – you might find it’s the goalkeeper who really keeps the company moving forward (and stops those painful own goals!)

4 – Use the wisdom of crowds. When Olympique Lyon think about signing a player, a broad group debate the transfer. In England it’s usually the manager. The more collaborative system has proved to be successful and tends to avoid the typical mistakes in the transfer market. How can you benefit from the wisdom of crowds in recruitment, and implement a process where different views are taken into account?

5 – Gentleman prefer blondes. At least one big British football club noticed that their scouts recommended more blonde players – apparently in a field of 22 similar looking players, the blondes tend to stand out. The club in question began to take this distortion into account when judging scouting reports. Sport is all about improving performance – there is no point in excluding a section of the population if they give your team advantages. An example quoted by the authors is a decline in racism against black footballers since the 1970s. So you may have a diversity policy and track demographic data religiously – but are you missing out on the breadth of talent that can help your organisation really shine? Identify and abandon your organisation ‘sight-based prejudices’ and look for systematic failures – rather than individual mistakes.

6 – Replace your best players even before you sell them. Do you wait for your trusty Finance Director to decide that it’s now time to spend more time in the garden or with the grand children? Have a succession management plan in place, so when the big day comes (and retirement is the nicest option here), you have someone who can fill the boots of the star players.

7 – Buy players with personal problems, and then help them deal with their problems. Brian Clough and Peter Taylor were great football thinkers, they had their vices and this possibly gave them particular empathy with troubled players. Once they identified a ‘more challenging’ player’s issue, they helped that player manage it. Their motivation might have been altruistic, but the outcome was they got much better value out of the transfer market and better results. In football the attitude has been “we pay you a lot of money now get on with it” – as if mental illness, addictions, or homesickness should not exist above a certain level of income. The modern attitude of Arsene Wenger also helped Tony Adams through his own recover from alcoholism, see Adam's charity, Sporting Chance. We are not suggesting you make “personal problems” one of your recruitment selection criteria, but this is a real issue in maintaining a healthy workplace. According to the 2001 World Health Organisation, one person in four will suffer from a mental health problem at some point in their life. There is an ethical and strong business case for helping employees who are having a hard time. See the CIPD Factsheet – Mental Health at Work.

8 – Help your players relocate. Why spend £24 million on a new member of staff and then let them fend for themselves in a Hotel in a new country. Clough and Taylor found that many transfers failed because of problems off the pitch. Use relocation consultants or find some way of integrating new joiners into their new role in your organisation. Didier Drogba spent months in a hotel looking for somewhere to live after training with Chelsea, how much faster would he have assumed his current form if his move, six years ago, had been better managed?

Before we blow the final whistle, here is our final thought – if we can learn something from football management, what can football management learn from talent management practices in other businesses?

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HR Transformers on Twitter

AndySpence — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 10:13:58 +0000

So you are no longer a HR Twitter Virgin, you have got yourself a Twitter username, added your appealing bio and uploaded your best photo. You may also have found your favourite celebrity tweeter, or your favourite magazines on Twitter.

Now it’s time to really dig a bit deeper into your particular ‘thing’. At Glass Bead Consulting , our particular ‘thing’ is HR Transformation , improving people management in organisations by applying various techniques and tools in technology, skills and solutions. This includes a broad group of people including HR professionals, writers, academics, consultants, vendors, technologists and various others who are interested in improving people management.

We have created different lists of ‘HR Transformers’ using a feature called Twitter Lists, primarily so we can read useful and relevant twitter streams. Many of these people have their own blogs and publications and we thought it might be useful to share these with you, so you can benefit from their views, resources and links. The lists are a starting point and new people are joining Twitter all the time – so please suggest others to follow and we will update.

HR Transformers on Twitter

1. HR Transformers-Bloggers Bloggers with a passion for HR transformation

2. HR Transformers-Analysts Industry analysts who have a focus on HR Technology, Human Capital Management or HR Outsourcing

3. HR Transformers-Writers HR Journalists or writers with an interest for HR Transformation

4. HR Transformers Techies HR Technology experts or suppliers

5. HR Transformers-Consultants HR consultants with a focus on HR Transformation

6. HR Transformers HR Outsourcing HR and BPO outsourcing vendors and commentators

7. HR Transformers Change Experts in managing change

8. HR Transformers OD Experts in Organisational Design

9. HR Publications HR Magazines and journals

10. Leadership Experts in leadership

11. Recruiters Those involved in recruitment with an interest in social media

We have also consolidated all of these lists to our own Listorious HR Transformers List which is a useful Twitter resource.

Please comment below on any other HR Transformers you recommend to follow on Twitter and we will add to the lists. Self-promotion is actively encouraged, especially for the shy and retiring Brits.

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HR Outsourcing – the Challenge of Picking Winners

glassb3ad — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 00:30:21 +0000

The potential benefits of Human Resource Outsourcing (HRO), have been well documented but not always delivered. These include reducing cost, avoiding HR technology investment, re-aligning HR towards delivering more strategy and improving HR services. (see Top 5 Benefits of HR Outsourcing). Choosing a vendor that matches your requirements and will work with your culture is difficult enough, but it also important to take a view on who the likely ‘winners’ will be in the HRO industry.

At the moment, in supporting our clients as they look at their HR Transformation options, we think one of the biggest challenges is that of ‘picking winners’. Whether considering HR Outsourcing for the first time, re-energising an existing contract or simply bringing the whole show back in-house. A wrong decision now could mean you are lumbered with the wrong vendor, solution or the wrong technology platform for the next 7-10 years. This has always been a challenge, yet is more significant now with big changes in the HRO industry. Nothing distracts the vendor’s senior management team more than mergers, acquisitions and a major change in direction.

Lessons have been learnt since the first generation HRO contracts of ten years ago, such as BP/Exult (for an interesting account, see The Great Vendor Bender free login required to HRO Today website) which has renewed its contract with Hewitt, following an ‘about-turn’ of its plans. As David Ulrich, a professor at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business reflected, ‘Often the first pancakes or first batch of cookies do not come out well.’

The giant HRO deal between Accenture and Unilever in 2006 has now been ‘digested’ following some implementation challenges. Since then, the HRO market has fragmented with some big players moving back to their ‘comfort zone’, focusing on their core markets and strengths, for example, Hewitt.

Other major changes in the industry include acquisitions such as ACS/Xerox, more ‘best-in-breed’ deals and the rapid rise of Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO), see for example, RPO ends 2009 with a big bang and begins 2010 on a high note. Buyers are now more likely to have a HR Operating Model with multiple HR vendors covering areas such as HRIS, Payroll and RPO. In fact increasingly more and more is up for grabs in HR outsourcing, see the People Management Guide to Outsourcing – Out of the Ordinary, including our thoughts on what should be outsourced and what should be retained.

As we predicted in our attempt to peer into the future of HR in our ‘Glass Bead Crystal Ball’, Future of HR Operating Models, there is still more consolidation to come in this $6 Billion Global industry. For more info, see HRO provider acquisitions on the rise from HR Outsourcing insights blog.

Hot off the press, Northgate Arinso have acquired the HR Management Services of Convergys. This is a bold bet on the future of the HRO market, and should combine the HR Service Delivery capability of Convergys US and European HR Service Centers, with Northgate Arinsos innovation and technical strengths. See Horses for Sources, the new Analyst firm in the starting stalls, with their take on the deal NorthgateArinso buys its way to top spot in Enterprise HRO and it only cost them $100m.

In picking a vendor, ‘financial stability’ has always been important in our Glass Bead Consulting weighted evaluation criteria, but now this has a much higher rating than 4 or 5 years ago. The rare AAA credit rating of ADP has a bigger pull than ever before.

Many organisations are attracted to the ‘on-demand’ HR outsourcing model with a view that there is no need to host the technology yourself with employees accessing services over the internet. This reduces some of the risks of picking the right technology platform, as it’s taken out of your hands. See for example, Northgate Arinsos 7 year HRO contract with Astra Zeneca, in 105 countries and 65,000 employees, based on their ‘euHReka platform’.

So the HRO market is changing all the time and the benefits and risks of HR Outsourcing will vary for each organisation, its requirements and context.

To minimise your risks in choosing a HRO vendor, consider the following :-

1. Think carefully about your Sourcing Strategy, will you put all your eggs in one basket or go for a best-of-breed approach with HR Processes? Make sure that the different vendors will be able to work with each other culturally and operate with compatible technology.
2. Establish your vendor evaluation criteria up front, work out as an organisation what are the relative weightings and identify any ‘deal-breakers’.
3. Work with your legal team to develop flexibility into the contract, including break-clauses and allowing interfaces with other vendors.
4. Consider using an independent HR outsourcing advisor who will know the market well and take you straight through to the Request for Proposal short-listing based on your requirements.
5. In your vendor evaluation, listen carefully to the vendor’s answers on their long-term strategy for HR Outsourcing.

Finally, there are great benefits for HRO as part of a broader strategy of transforming HR or to reduce costs, but keep an eye on the marketplace and picking a winner will pay a healthy return.

There are more useful HR Outsourcing resources in the HR Transformation Knowledge Bank

Photo Credit :- Andy Spence – Brighton Races – October 2004

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HR Social Networks – UK Trends

glassb3ad — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 20:20:31 +0000

Are UK HR professionals the ’social butterflies’ of the online World? Researchers monitored 2000 online conversations in the UK over September and October as part of their research. The conversations included employers, consultancies, and employees discussing HR related topics. The interesting report from CHA, the workplace communications consultancy, was based on research by online specialist Pass It On Media. It found that the tone of conversations was mainly neutral to positive which surprised the researchers who expected more ‘angst’ in the current economic environment. The report is worth a read with innovative research, case-studies from Virgin, E.ON UK and Dell, and some very useful and practical tips for employees and employers alike. Download the PDF "Conversations at your fingertips – How HR professionals score as social networkers"

The findings that stand out for me :-

1. The key venues for conversation are message boards or forums, which account for 54%, followed by social networks such as LinkedIn (23%) and blogs (23%).
2. Broadly, the themes covered are: the working environment & friendship at work, salaries & related issues, how people are feeling, and work/life balance & holidays.
3. The top five are LinkedIn, Facebook, iVillage, Netmums and UK Business Labs.
4. Busiest day for social networking about employment issues are Thursdays and Fridays.
5. Social Networks are now more popular than personal emails.
6. The term ‘human resources’ has been used only 13,000 times on Twitter "HR" has been used a staggering 323,000 times in the life of Twitter.

For trends in UK Social Media usage, the map below comes from Are you LinkedIn in London or Bebo in Belfast? and show the regionalisation of various social networks, as of September 2009. With Facebook and Twitter’s growth leveling off, and Bebo and MySpace continuing to lose audience it will be very interesting to run these again in 2010.

Possible questions for further research is how do other functions compare to HR and what are the trends in other countries?

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How to Lead Change by Example – 5 Tips for HR Professionals

Andrew Spence — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 10:37:20 +0000

This is a summary of an original article published by Strategic HR Review.

In an economic downturn and subsequent recovery, change is inevitable for every organization. Effective Change Management is often a mix of the strategic and the practical. It can encompass everything from ensuring strategies are aligned, to making sure your weekly bulletin goes out on time, on message and to the right people. From a HR perspective, it is important to provide leadership and guidance by example and the following actions can help HR executives to lead the way during the change process.

1. Define and deliver your HR strategy

Make sure that HR strategy is consistent with the overall business strategy, and where necessary provide input and ideas into the overall business strategy. Make sure you achieve buy-in from key stakeholders. This can be achieved by clearly outlining your proposed improvements and delivering on project ideas early on. Part of aligning HR strategy with the overall business strategy will be achieved by sharpening your HR operating model and asking how each HR role will support your organization in the next 12 months. You will be better able to respond quickly to organizational changes with better HR systems, more effective processes and better aligned capabilities in place. This allows HR to deal with the next new change more effectively.

2. Understand HR cost drivers

It is vital to know what drives HR costs. If you know your key performance metrics and what has an effect on them, you can quickly demonstrate that you understand the cost, service and risk implications of any proposed organizational changes on your own department. A good grasp of the cost implications of strategic decisions and the analysis to back it up – really helps when it comes to making changes. By conducting an assessment of the HR department, you get a better understanding of your internal benchmarks. A key metric for HR to understand is the HR “Cost to Serve”of each employee, including staff, systems and third parties. This can vary widely between businesses and geographies and it is important to know why.

3. Take a lead on sourcing options

Take the outsourcing decision to your board – do not let the board take it to you. Be proactive and do the research into how outsourcing could benefit your department (see article Top 5 Benefits of HR Outsourcing)and bring about positive change, as well as cost-savings. Show that you have been actively looking at alternative ways to provide better and more cost-effective HR services in payroll, IT, recruitment, training, HR administration and benefits. Develop your own “build or buy” criteria to help gradually improve HR services. Demonstrate that your business case takes into account the benefits of moving from fixed cost to a more variable cost (that will help in the downturn and the subsequent upturn).

4. Lead by example

There is a balancing act that good HR directors need to master. Often, HR directors are so outwardly focused on supporting the organization that they can neglect the day-to-day workings of their own department. When aligning HR strategy to the wider business strategy, HR directors need to focus on the internal working of the HR department, and most importantly, the people within the HR department. Show leadership through developing your talented team members, and use this as your core team to lead change. Retention strategies start at home, so show the board what you are doing to keep and develop your most talented team members. Be innovative. The organization will look to the HR department to lead on this – secondments, project roles and recognizing excellent service are all initiatives that can inspire people within the organization.

5. Implement change decisively and calmly

All executives in the organization must demonstrate leadership by managing change in a calm and decisive way. HR can stop the organization making “knee-jerk” reactions – more than ever, this is the time to make the right decisions for your organization. Implement changes calmly, effectively and consistently.

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HR Survey Highlights Skills Gap in HR

Andrew Spence — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 18:31:17 +0000

The biggest barrier to transforming Human Resources is the lack of appropriate skills in HR, according to the 2008 Global HR Transformation Report (conducted by HROA in association with ADP). This is the 5th annual survey with 129 executives around the globe in varying stages of HR Transformation. DOWNLOAD 2008 GLOBAL HR TRANSFORMATION REPORT HERE

The survey defines HR Transformation as – “any concerted effort to change and improve HR operations, whether through outsourcing, shared services, internal reengineering, or a combination of these strategies”.

We use a broader definition. Successful HR Transformation needs to align all the components in the HR operating model including Business Partners, Service Centres, Centres of Excellence, HR Strategy, Managers and Employees. Sometimes there is too much emphasis on implementing Shared Services or HR Outsourcing at the expense of actually delivering the HR Strategy.
(see comments by Jason Geller “HRO does not equal HR Transformation”)

The survey points to some interesting trends in HR Transformation :-

“The biggest ‘chronic hurdle’ that impedes transformation is the skills of existing HR staff.”
This is cited by over 60% of respondents. The skills needed to manage HR are very different to the skills needed to transform HR. The survey doesn’t mention which skills, but experience is required in Change Management, Process Design, Organisation Design, Project Management, Business Case Management, and HR Technology. So what can you do? Consider these steps before starting your HR Transformation project, utilise transformation experience in other areas of your organisation and use HR professionals as ‘content’ owners.

“Most organisations are meeting or exceeding their cost savings targets.”
Sounds impressive, but of course this depends on what the cost savings targets are. Some projects aim to break even, but allocate a larger proportion of their cost to strategic objectives rather than administration.

“Past HR Transformation lessons don’t appear to filtering out.”
Each organisation will have different goals, a different workforce and different starting points. But there are themes and lessons learned – so why aren’t they being shared in this digital age of collaboration? Joining networks such as the HROA help. Conferences are dominated by vendor/sponsors rather than providing HR transformers with real ‘independent’ lessons learned. With more sharing and online networking things should improve, see for example initiatives such as our own HR Transformer Blog and DiscussHR.

“Only 48% engage consultants or sourcing advisors.”
Some organisations are getting external support which is an obvious solution to the skills gap. On business cases which involve large IT transformation and cost savings, a review from an experienced, independent consultant can be money well spent. There are still objections to using consultants who are perceived to push ‘pyramids’ of junior consultants and lack independence. Do advisors need to up their game or do they need to market their benefits more effectively?

“66% plan to outsource some HR processes.”
Payroll is outsourced in nearly 90% of cases. End-to-end HR Outsouricng contracts are being signed (see recent IBM Unilever deal) , and buyers do see the benefits of HR Outsourcing, however buyers are even more careful in this environment. With major economic change there is less appetite for 10 year contracts and more examples of tactical sourcing.

“Price is most significant in provider selection.”
It is interesting that Financial stability has risen up from 12th most important factor in 2006, to 6th in 2008. This will be Top 5 next year with much more detailed financial checking of potential vendors.

The ADP/HROA survey has provided a useful barometer of HR Transformation, it will be interesting to see whether more progress has been made on the barriers next year.

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Glass Bead Consulting launches new workshops

support — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 16:47:33 +0000

Glass Bead Consulting announce ‘HR Transformation Workshop’
Institute of Directors, London – March 5th 2009

Glass Bead Consulting have announced an advanced HR Transformation workshop designed to give HR Executives a headstart in transforming the HR function. The one day course will be held at the Institute of Directors, Pall Mall, London.
Click here for more details about the course and how to book.

Glass Bead Consulting announce ‘HR Outsourcing Workshop’
Institute of Directors, London – March 31st 2009

Glass Bead Consulting have announced an HR Outsourcing Workshop ‘Delivering the benefits and managing the risks’ – a workshop designed to give an overview of what HR outsourcing can do for your organisation. The one day course will be held at the Institute of Directors, Pall Mall, London.
Click here for more details about the course and how to book.

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HR Transformer Blog » Latest News

Why England Lose – Talent Management Insights from Football

Top 10 HR Transformation Articles in June

Top 10 HR Transformation Articles in May

Top 10 HR Transformation Articles of the Month

HR Transformers on Twitter

HR Outsourcing – the Challenge of Picking Winners

HR Social Networks – UK Trends

How to Lead Change by Example – 5 Tips for HR Professionals

HR Survey Highlights Skills Gap in HR

Glass Bead Consulting launches new workshops