HR Transformer Blog
What will you Stop, Start and Continue in 2013 ?
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.
Top HR Transformation Articles from November 2012
In November we found out who will be the leaders of the United States and China for the next few years. In the world of HR Transformation, we start with two articles which slay two old HR dragons, Performance Reviews and Employee Engagement. We highlight the most important HR outsourcing contracts of the last couple of years, and finish with a book recommendation on Negotiation. A skill we all need to be very good at in HR!
“healthier firms have a shareholder return that is 19% higher”
Therefore, sleeping with one's shoes on causes headache."
As Vilet explains “Every HR department wants to believe that high employee engagement causes company performance. But that is not true. Many in HR mistake correlation with causality and therefore don’t understand what drives what.”
The new HR Competencies, have been issued from SHRM and highlighted by Cathy Missildine. You might remember from last year, Professor Ulrich's What's next for HR? The six competencies HR needs for today's challenges which are:-
Capability Builder, Change Champion, HR Innovator/Integrator, Technology Proponent, Credible Activist and Strategic Positioner.
We would both be interested to know which set do you prefer and why ?
A Revolutionary Approach to Strategic Change In this hour long Harvard Business Review webinar, John Kotter, foremost expert on leadership and transformation discusses a new approach to accelerate the achievement of their strategic initiatives in a rapidly changing environment.
BigData in HR: Why it's Here and What it Means
Given the global recession and talent imbalances in the world, companies are focusing on replacing their legacy HR systems to help apply analytics reasoning to HR and talent. Josh Bersin provides his analysis, and for the visual thinkers provides a useful diagrammatic history in The inevitable Shift to HR and Analytics.
9 Ways HR & Recruiting Technology Will Evolve in Next 4 Years
"Most of the 10 million Millennials entering the job market during the next three years will expect a far better candidate experience than today’s." An interesting article on TLNT, from Heather Huhman.
The Amazonification of Recruiting
Bob Corlett creates a new word AND provides insight into current recruitment trends.
"The Amazonification of recruiting is accelerating. Sites like Yelp and Glassdoor are pulling back the curtain on candidate experience. LinkedIn has found a way to rapidly accelerate the endorsement process, and apparently will start to weigh your endorsements in their search results. It’s a brave new world of accountability coming. Are your recruiting practices ready for it? "
Negotiate your L&D budget successfully Why do people buy ? Apparently, there are 'good' reasons vs the 'real' reasons. If you like what Simon has to say, we recommend his new book, Negotiation Mastery: Tools for the 21st Century Negotiator. This might make a good Christmas gift for that special HR Business Partner in your life.
Most Important HR Outsourcing Contracts of the last 2 Years
Last year, we asked if HR Outsourcing could be on the verge of an upturn with our article, “Will HR Outsourcing ride the Third Wave?”
According to estimates by industry analysts, Everest Group, the multi-process HR Outsourcing market is worth about US$3.3 billion globally. We expect respectable single digit growth over 2011 and 2012.
The positive benefits and business case for HR Outsourcing is still there for organisations who currently have a need for:
- - Standardised HR services
- - Reduced HR Cost to Serve to its employees
- - Access to new innovative workplace tools and technology
There have not been many mega-deals, but plenty of smaller contracts in the multi-process HRO Market. However, single process outsourcing including Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) is the fastest growing segment in HRO, as HRO Insights highlight in their article "RPO, A Bright Future on the Path to Business Impact"
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In summary, we have had:
- - Two large European deals
- - Two in South America
- - Two contract renewals
We have also seen some longer contracts including a 15 year contract, showing some confidence in the HRO market. IBM appears to be leading the way with 3 new contracts with Unilever in South America, Air Canada and Algar. IBM has also make a very good acquisition of Kenexa which should enhance their RPO and HRO offerings.
Two of these contracts were renewals with the incumbents here. We advise organisations with current HRO contracts and 2 or 3 years from renewal to see this as an opportunity to review all options. The market and conditions are very different to those when they originally signed the contract.
Renewal is always good for business, particularly with such long contracts. In our article the “HR Outsourcing – The challenge of picking winners” we mentioned that you need to look at the market longer-term. Who is more likely to be in the HRO business in 13 years time IBM, HP, Ceridian, Infosys, ADP ? Take your pick…
Hewlett Packard stride back into the market with a large European deal. To our knowledge, there has been no new large multi process HR Outsourcing contracts for Northgate Arinso, Ceridian, Accenture, Xerox/ACS, or the emerging Indian providers such as HCL, Wipro or Infosys. With contracts running up to 15 years and an industry in the throes of consolidation, it is important to check the vendors’ long-term appetite for HRO.
We plan to publish more HRO Vendor Profiles and HRO Market analysis over the coming months. Get in touch with us if you have any particular questions and make sure you don’t miss out by signing up for our articles direct to your inbox.
Here, we dip into our “Glass Bead HR Outsourcing Database” to give the HR Transformer Blog view of the six most important HR Outsourcing contracts of the last 2 years.
1 - Hewlett Packard step back into the HRO market with a 15 year contract with UniCredit
UniCredit is an Italian based global service company. With strong roots in 22 European countries and an overall international network present in approximately 50 markets, 9,500 branches and 158,000 employees.
The 15 year contract was signed in May 2012, with about 98,000 employees mainly in Italy & Austria. The scope of the contract includes payroll, time and attendance, workforce administration, learning and development administration, mobility, and ex-pat services. The service will be delivered using a Joint Venture (JV), dedicated company called ES Shared Service Center SpA.
This is a large European contract and gets HP right back into the HRO market after no major deals for the last 4 years. It is significant because of the sheer scale of nearly 100k employees. HP beat IBM, the incumbent, demonstrating that organisations are willing to test the market rather than ‘stick with the devil you know’.
2 - BAE Systems changed their HR flight path with Logica, but, then changed their mind and stayed with Xchanging
BAE Systems is a global company engaged in the development, delivery and support of advanced defence, security and aerospace systems for air, land and sea. BAE are pioneers in the HRO market with an early contract with Xchanging at the beginning of this century. The Logica contract was signed in February 2012, and would have been based in the UK over 6 years and involved the design of a new system on Oracle’s Peoplesoft HCM and E-Business Suite Payroll. However, BAE, changed their HR flight path again, and have now confirmed that the deal will no longer go ahead.
“Following the acquisition of Logica by CGI Group Inc. on 20 August, BAE Systems has exercised its contractual right to terminate the contract for HR outsourcing services," the company said in a statement.
"We are now reviewing our HR business process outsourcing activity and have agreed a 12 month extension to the current HR Services contract with Xchanging HR Services (XHRS)," it added.
Unilever has more than 171,000 employees globally, and incidentally is the biggest producer of ice-cream on the planet. This 5 year deal was signed in April 2011, and includes 27,000 employees in Latin America.
Back, in 2006, Unilever outsourced HR services to Accenture in 100 countries, however this did not include South America. The word by the 'HR ice-cream van' was that Accenture found this HRO contract with Unilever almost too big to digest, and left the organisation with some indigestion, too much ice-cream is not good for you....
What this contract does show is the maturity of HR Outsourcing pioneers such as Unilever who are willing to use multiple service providers globally. This mitigates the risk of having one global provider, enables some internal competition and keeps the HRO vendors on their toes. For others, this also helps to open up a more competitive HRO market. For large organisations like Unilever, and many Public Sector buyers, splitting up the scope was their only viable option as their ambitions are greater than the vendors’ ability to execute globally.
4 - Aon Hewitt are re-United with BMO Financials
This is a contract renewal for 8 years, signed in June 2012. A pat on the back for Aon Hewitt, who continue with BMO Financials, with 46,000 employees in North America. The scope includes payroll, workforce administration, health and welfare administration, recruitment services, and compensation administration amongst others.
5 - Air Canada board with IBM for an 8 year contract
IBM signed an 8 year contract with Air Canada in September 2011, dislodging Aon Hewitt. Air Canada, based in Montreal, have about 26,000 employees in North America.
The scope includes HR contact centre, employee data management, employee travel support, payroll, benefits administration, leave management, recruiting services (with select support from manpower), and software application support for the HR systems used to provide the services.
Why is IBM continuing its MPHRO winning streak?
According to Kevin Howlett, Air Canada’s senior Vice President of employee relations, “IBM’s core strengths as a market leader in innovation played an important role in our decision-making process.” It also helped that the client felt IBM also had the strongest service offerings, a commitment to transformation, and the proven ability to ensure delivery performance and lower cost.”
6 - IBM sign 13 year deal with Algar Group in Brazil
Another contract for IBM signed in March 2012, with the Algar group. Brazilian holding company Algar is comprised of four business units: IT and telecoms, agribusiness, tourism, and services. This is a 13-year multi-tower award from Algar Group in Brazil that covers HR, F&A, and procurement supply chain management. The contract covers seven of Algar’s business segments and 13,000 employees.
The scope for HRO includes call centre, personnel management, benefits administration, payroll, training, and performance management.
Top HR Transformation Articles from October 2012
There have been two big HR Technology Conferences either side of the Atlantic this month, filled with talk of ‘big mobile gamification in the data cloud’, or something similar. After being initially dazzled for a moment, I rubbed my eyes and remembered, “It’s all about the People” and found some great articles on managing change. I’ve taken a brief look at HR’s past and it’s future, finishing with some useful tips from HR Metrics to running your HR Shared Service centre like a Gordon Ramsay restaurant (but obviously without the expletives!).
One of my mantras is that for technology investment to be worthwhile, we need to focus more on the people who will use it, these two articles on Change Management were clear and insightful. Ten Reasons People Resist Change from a true teacher, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, and a golden oldie with some useful lessons, from Harvard Business Review - The Hard Side of Change Management.
HR Operating Models - Ulrich Model 2012
The evolution of HR operating models over the past two decades has been slow in some areas. In the article, HR's Future Looks Strategic—or Does It? University of Southern California professor Edward Lawler has tracked the amount of time HR managers spent on working as a strategic partner since 1995. He recently released the results of his latest research, from 2010, and found nothing has changed.
"When we ask them: 'What is their role in developing business strategy for their companies?' we're getting the same answers as we've always gotten," Lawler says.
Why is HR no less strategic than in 1995?
My view is the move to a simpler Ulrich model has generally aligned HR better to organisational goals, focused more on the customer, enabling economies of scale and economies of skill. However the transition to this model has not always been successful and the interpretation of HR roles such as the Business Partner have not been wholly successful.
Another question for HR Operating models related to demographics, in 2020, one third of workers will be over 50, so how will this impact HR? We ask the question of the Impact of the Ageing Workforce on HR.
HR Shared Services: What works well for a restaurant could help HR Shared Services function. Simon Brown, writing in SSON, suggests Restaurant-style Service (Tier-0 and Tier-1) “Tier 0 – to ensure your menu is well laid out, easy to search, navigate and read.” Great article, but be careful with following Gordon Ramsay’s style too closely!
HR Metrics of Note: Revenue Per Employee VS. Profit Per Employee A good example of using HR Metrics that matter, in this case to the investor community, who use Revenue per Employee to analyse retail giant Amazon. Who else could this come from but the HR Capitalist?
Powerpoint use and abuse - Few pieces of office software have simultaneously been so used and abused even causing ‘death by PowerPoint’. Find out about Cognitive Dissonance, Noise & Overload from Donald Clark.
The Top Social Tools For 21st-Century HR Humans, communication, work etc, makes HR the ideal spot from which to harness changes in work habits for the benefit of the company – good read from FastCompany.
And finally, Live language translation. Now this is a disruptive technology! Remember Babel Fish from Hitch hickers Guide the Galaxy. I did a Masters in Cognitive Science in the mid-90s and some of these technologies are starting to emerge - very exciting developments indeed! Hat-tip to Graeme Codrington for this link on Twitter.
We hope you enjoy our latest HR Transformation articles, a big thank you to those who contribute with fresh ideas and suggestions to share with the HR community. Do keep in touch with any of your future articles and suggestions @AndySpence on Twitter.
