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2009-05-21T08:53:21Z

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Big ideas in HR?

2009-03-24T08:54:20Z

I was referred, by one on my team, to a recent thread in HR space on the theme of 'Big ideas in HR'.

Naturally I was curious to find out what had been written. I must say I was quite disappointed with the reponses. Some contributors should get out more!

Here's a few not only doing the rounds in thought leadership but have already begun to cross-over into organisation application:

Strategic Human Capital Management (Vol 1 No 1 2007 & Vol 2 No 1 2008)

HR Function 2.0 (Brave New HR World) (Vol 1 No 1&2 2007)

Performance based employee engagement (Vol 1 No 1&2, 2007; Vol 2 No 1 2008 and Vol 3 No 1 forthcoming)

Evidence based Management/Leadership (Vol 2 No 1 2008)

Human Capital Reporting (Vol 1 No 3 2007)

Real HR Transformation (Vol 1 No 3 2007)

Human Capital Management Intelligence (Vol 2 No 1 2008)

Organisation Engagement (Vol 1 No 2 2007)

Other articles relating to all of these can be found at either (a) Journal of AHCM, or (b) ISHCM.

If that fails to light your fire then I would suggest new insights into topics related to people management include:

Behavioural economics (and neuroscience)

Analytics and decision-making; and the role of everyday probability (decision theory)

The continuing talent management debate

White collar deception and fraud causes and forensics

Business intelligence

I've mentioned evidence based management already but its a potentially large area and its at the heart of what we do/stand for - I trust that HR isn't in danger of missing the boat again!

There's also evidence-based ethics (includes elements of philosophy but that's not new) and its role in decision-making and culture which we are currently developing as a cross-hybrid as well!

For those of you who want to really push the boat out there's the heuristic/predictive thingy related to analytics and decison-making (see above) and its organisational application (which is where we're at)

Of course there's always the new 12-month part-time HCMI qualification to learn about these.

So no big ideas? Have a read and let me know.

It s not that we lack big ideas in HR we just don't seem to know them and apply them in large numbers.

Enjoy......

Transforming HR: An idea whose time has come........

2009-03-16T20:11:31Z

Well - we've been plying our (predictive) analytics and evaluation based HR (aka Human Capital Management) with select clients for over 6 years now. A combination of the best of qualitative and quantitative approaches that yield management insight for decision-making and actioning.

In the meantime, the mainstream HR focus has been on the same old same old with scant media or Institute attention at the innovation that the HR community has at its feet (but to a large extent ignored).

So I was very interested to see an article apppearing in this week's Business Week entitled 'Data Mining Moves to Human Resources' which provides an insight into where the function of people management is headed.

Though I'm not that overly enamoured with the example (we passed the data-mining point some four years ago - see our latest on enterprise-wide HCM Intelligence) it is a sign that serious attention is being paid to the potential ways that HR functions can 'move up the curve' (and more pragmatically than the article example).

The bit about integrating data from across various areas of people management from performance, reward, engagement, talent management, retention, leadership, recruitment, job evaluation, behavioural modelling, legal/operating risk aspects (to name but a few) and evaluating/analysing them all to aid decision-making is a good move, even though in itself its not new.

I can say that UK leads the field. A pity that too many in HR don't see it.

But as long as we can tinker with HR function structure, talk endlessly about the HR function, recruitment, equality (at least diversity has died down a bit), and accept stuff that is neither intellectually robust nor practically useful bar being a PR illusion. Who cares, eh?

Well I do.......and gradually a small growing army. I just hope we reach crictical mass before I retire which is about thirty years away...........

Looking forward is where it's at.

We need to dispense with those rear-view mirrors. In recessionary times they tend to get snapped off.............

The FSA and the banking crisis: The dangerous 360 appraisal and where was HR?

2009-03-09T09:00:03Z

Some more light beginning to appear on why the FSA appeared to be 'comatose' (my words) at the wheel at the heart of the UK banking crisis.

A very interesting article published yesterday - 'Exposed: the banks cosy ties to watchdog' would seem to provide at least one contributing factor and what a whopper it is.

According to a whistleblower (yes another one.......and from the FSA!) financial institutions were given a formal role in determining pay, bonuses (and by definition) career prospects of the very people who were supervising them.

Apparently banks etc provided 'feedback' on staff who were supervising them which effectively disincentivised them from challenging things like, for example, their business model amongst other things.

FSA staff were even warned 'not to frighten the horses' during visits. The staff assessment form includes 'positive feedback from firms'.

Now, I don't know about you but THERE IS A BIG CONFLICT OF INTEREST HERE............we're talking regulators of the banking industry.

And why I admit that regulators still need to show respect and courtesy like any super-audit team, this is way different to having banks providing formal input to an internal FSA staff appraisal.

Talk about bending the operating culture.......a question on this whole subject was asked at the recent Commons Treasury Committee.

So the big question was where was HR in all of this? Where was the due diligent process to state the inherent risks and unintended consequences of this flagrant design flaw? Or was HR just ticking process boxes and of course chasing incompleted 'feedback' in that bustling non-value activity so reminiscent of many HR functions?

Or did they internally report the dangers apparent from this type of 360 to senior management but were over-ruled or just plainly ignored? Or did they not see this as even their remit to?

The FSA was also apparently constantly under-resourced which was another factor. So what was HR in fact doing? Maybe HR at the FSA could throw some more light on the matter?

Bizarrely there is an interesting copy of the FSA staff consultative committee minutes available on the internet from early 2008 which is quite revealing. You read it and make your own mind up.

All's I will say it is enough is to say it's exactly what's wrong with too many HR functions.........

It's bitterly disappointing as a professional in this field to see this and not only that to see the potential unintended consequences (some conspiracy theorists out there may say intended) which has had such a devastating effect.

I trust that the CIPD make a case study of this and insert into their syllabus for all as relevant learning. We certainly will be at the School once we have ascertained the 'evidence'.

Another day and another nail in the HR professional coffin......................

Comments welcome......

Tackling worklessness, unemployment or whatever else you want to call it......

2009-03-03T14:56:59Z

This of course also includes the workshy, the incapacity claimant benefits (both bona fide and otherwise), the in-betweens, the illegals etc.

I've just completed a review of the new report 'Tackling worklessness' mentioned in PT's article 'Council apprenticeships and 'taster' schemes proposed to tackle unemployment'.

The report pushes all the right buttons and ticks off all the words with buzzword management speak.

'Partnerships, neighbourhood, contribution, roles, sustainable, flexibility, delivery, framework, empowerment, commitment, coordination, radical measures, transparency, simpler, more frameworks, asessments, integrated budgets, engaging, good practice, working together, agencies, sharing information' and so on.

Though the authors have done a respectable job the one question you ask is what have local authorities and local agencies been doing for the past 20 years since the last time we as a nation were 'employment challenged'?

And I don't want to belittle the report since it makes some very good recommendations which will no doubt be superceded by some more perhaps in another few years time when these set of proposals have not been implemented or worse have made no difference (just being swallowed up in the current economic wave I fear).

But, for all of the focus at the moment on the 'input' side i.e. trying to get unemployment down or people into jobs, it's the wrong one.

Some weeks ago I blogged on the national scheme being introduced where effectively 'recruitment brokers' are going to be paid squillions targeting employers to take people on in a 'push-demand approach' in a simlar vein. Very good but very limited and arguably a mis-allocation of resource funds.

The point is the killer-one-line' in the 'Tackling Worklessness' report, namely 'ACTIVE ENGAGEMENT WITH EMPLOYERS - BEING DEMAND LED' (actually its a bullet-point on page 20). Amen to that.

You see in all of the excited agitated initaitives and fire-fighting by the national Government and it would seem in some circumstances local government, the problem is you can spend as much money as you want but if you can't get new employers, from two-man bands upwards to mega-corporations, hiring you're stuffed. Simply trying to stoking further demand from over-indebted consumers is a facile way of thinking. PERIOD.

For some impact you need to reduce business taxes and local contributions, boost R&D investment (but outside the university sector), ensure trade credit (I'm talking here of the invoice payment gap) is supplied.That's economics.

Yes - you can even get the local authority being the biggest employer and also procuring to all of the local companies to keep the local economy alive but in the end you'll go bankrupt because insufficient wealth is created to sustain it.

This basic grasp of economics seems to be above many. The government seems to think that offering SMEs loans will solve the problem. Pathetic.

Evidence: You only have to look at the localities where the local authority is the biggest employer to see that they suffer the worst in a downturn.

I would sugggest that another report be commissioned that provides both strategic and tactical operations that defines the skills cluster a locality has and what it needs to sustain itself and which industries it can grow human capital and deliver value with - a kind of 'locality centre of excellence' if you like (once basics are covered) - we do have a few dotted around but far too few in number.

This report should also show how we can wean ourselves off the big local authority budget. For example, slashing business rates would be a good start.

But for that you need to cross power lines of political authority/mandate with vision and that's dangerous because ultimately it flies in the face of the big budget local authority.

Funny how we get our priorities wrong.............Because the problem is for all of the goodwill reporting such as the 'Tackling Worklessness' and similar reports/initiatives provide, the economic employer horse has already bolted and is dying from thirst...........

Also recent research showed that students and the recent unemployed are more likely to seek employment in the public sector (where they can) which is entirely understandable but ultimately futile nationally.

And yes there's been a lot of people who have become self (un)employed. Apart from (irrelevant) training support there's little else. To survive you need to transact business - training and/or support groups will be of little use.

That's what the market teaches you..............

CIPD becomes KPMG's HR market research arm....

2009-02-24T13:16:57Z

Am I the only one to notice this?

Just google CIPD KPMG and see what comes up.......never mind the recent press attention

Of course I've always thought that CIPD was an independent institution of a proud profession.

Instead we see prostitution...

Just what is going on?

With over 100,000 members paying £200 a year......

Of course not forgetting KPMG's long history of HR/HCM advisory...well the last couple of years anyway.........though I'm sure they're very pleased.....

I wouldn't mind so much if the surveys told us something we didn't already know.......

Also, CIPD sponsoring Best Companies nonsense?...just what is going on with our independent professional institute?

Answers on a postcard (apart from this blog) to Jackie Orme............

I predict a riot II - The dark side of human capital

2009-02-23T08:25:48Z

Some weeks ago I used the title to suggest that things could get a little ugly over the expansion of Heathrow.

However, I am now resigned to the fact that the march in Dublin at the weekend and various similar civil skirmishes around the world is just a foretaste of what is to come sadly in the UK and it is going to get ugly - of course we had a taster over the recent migrant labour issue which actually was a non-issue legally but that didn't suppress the feeling of anger nestling just below the surface and so effectively whipped up by the Unions.

As denial slowly turns to anger, a proportion of the people up and down the country are going to feel a growing inequity with regard to their circumstances. In fact coincidentally, there is a report this morning on this issue - see 'Police fear UK summer of rage' as an example.

Also stories like the 'expense issue' highlighted by Cabinet ministers such as Jacqui Smith (aka as 'taking the p****) will just add flame to the fire, as will the new revelations about the MEP gravy train ('How to make a million in five years') providing a 'stick' for any in Europe who want to sow discord or just feel aggrieved and rightly so.

Talent in the UK Government is sadly lacking which must be obvious even to those most myopic amongst us. There is a dearth of leadership and moral compass.

Human capital can be wonderfully creative and innovative, the most hearty resilient, the most loyal and productive, the most willing and the most successful at teamwork.

The flipside of human capital is the 'selfish, egotistical, greedy, 'in denial', overly-reliant, comfortable (against change), 'don't rock the boat' mentality - THE DARK SIDE. We've seen plenty of that from all sides in recent weeks.

And thus expect growing insurrection as people take to the streets whether for justifiable or other means.

An unfortunate growing of private vs public sector, haves vs have-nots, the unfunded vs the funded, middle/working class vs elite governing amongst others, etc. It's not good. There's also some real questions about the stability of the EU about to be asked. We should never have got here......

And as a growing black hole emerges in taxation expect more to go underground as the black economy grows. The 'banker bonus issue' is really just a magician's misdirection. It's been interesting to read The Guardian's series on big companies legally avoiding taxation to a few billion.

I would have preferred them to have eagerly spent the same investigative time on where the £600 odd billion goes each year from the public coffers...........it's where the answer lies....

What the Stanford case message provides in human capital terms

On the subject of fakery. Ponzi schemes and hyper-egos, the current Stanford case is illuminating for HR as much as others:

Yet again, we see that 'warning signs' were ignored. One interesting insight was the now infamous meeting of Allen Stanford and the ECB at Lord's cricket ground.
For those of you who haven't followed this story Stanford last year touched down in a helicopter at Lords cricket ground in a huge fanfare touting the $20 million jackpot for the 'new cricket era'.

It turns out that the helicopter bearing the Stanford name was not owned but leased on an hourly basis. The gold Stanford logo had been applied by the leasing company. And the helicopter was only in flight for about 5 minutes.

Nor was there $20 million actually in the 'chest' that got so much media attention. It certainly fooled many.......

Truly style over substance which reminds me of a number of HR suppliers who we occasionally come up against, and come to think of it a few HR Directors and academics as well. I do hope the same fate awaits.

The fact that a staid governing body like the ECB got hoodwinked 'hook, line and sinker' also reminds me of another governing body closer to home -do you recognise it?

Bogus training

No, I don't mean generally(!) but actually the very sad fact of exploiting the unemployed or the fear of unemployment. A good article in yesterday's Observer on this topic.

Of course the Government is currently renegotiating hundreds of millions of pounds with suppliers in getting unemployed back to work. Am I the only one who questions this?

Rewarding middlemen (brokers if you like) to push into the market with various targets reeks of 'wasted money' or worse 'a playground for the unscrupulous or even the scrupulous to waste taxpayers money and pocket profits'.

Why not just give growing businesses (like ours, for example) a contract to take a number of people on (subject to various clauses) and cut out the middleman entirely - a market pull approach instead?

Why indeed?

That madman Colonel Gadaffi and the lesson he brings

I have known Colonel Gadaffi for over 30 years (not personally you understand).

I've always thought that he was several drills short of an oil platform. But here, now the man seems to be talking a lot of sense (it could be a ruse but so what?)

'CG' is advocating a dismantling of Government, ending corruption and giving it back to the people. He's quoted as saying "The administration has failed and the state economy has failed. Enough is enough'.

Gadaffi for Uk Prime Minister anybody? or failing that the EU presidency on a permanent basis?

The banking crisis and HR's role (or non-role)?

2009-02-18T08:38:29Z

As the banking crisis continues, more information is seeping out from various sources regarding reward, operating culture, ethics and corporate reputation.

And there's one question in all of this what was HR's role? There has been an acute silence....

Let's take reward (exclude executive board remuneration for the moment).

Is it or is it not under HR's remit?

Somewhere, reward-risk design got badly out of kilter with organisation performance or more appropriately risk and timelines - i.e. short term reward for longer term pay-off which was unquantified.

From a reward perspective, banking and in particular case loan granting is a complex area (never mind derivatives) of reward design and associated risk. (I should know from personal experience as a line manager way back - as an aside I was amazed to find I was more banking qualified than the various CEOs sitting at the MP committee's table last week!)

It is now clear that HR functions were not in control of this area for a number of reasons - see my previous blog - HR Puppet on a string.

Sadly it seems as though either HR was told what to do or not involved at all. This is particularly at odds with Banks having been at the forefront of employee engagement.

But as we have previously pointed out on more than one occasion, this type of engagement (like many) was/is rather 'individual input' focused as opposed to being both individual and organisation 'output/outcome' focused.

It is no good scoring high benchmarks to various 'engagement' questions (and publishing them) if there is no connection to individual/organisational performance or operating culture or indeed any potential risks attached. It all smacks of too much PR. By the way banking isn't the only one.

That's why we believe employee engagement should be related to individual/organisation performance and in that respect we are the odd ones out professionally.

When it comes to operating culture and ethics, the HR function again seems to have gone AWOL.

However, it did spend a lot of time on diversity initiatives, general CSR PR and a plethora of other well-meaning things but ultimately these were 'missing the obvious' - the basics of organisational performance linked from its organisation design. Think Lehmans as an obvious example. Think everybody else since.

Nobody seems to have held their hands up professionally and said there's something missing here - this is exactly the kind of thing those who care about the HR/HCM profession's standing have been on about for some time.

Where is the CIPD in all of this?

Nowhere. Given all of the reward/benefits conferences that take place giving CPD points like confetti one would have thought that a few questions may have been asked previously on this organisational issue and other related issues. I did notice that Jackie Orme, to her credit, at least commented on 'bonuses helping the business' - see PT's recent 'Bonus blame game' article.

However, the CIPD currently really prefers to continue to broadcast daily in the media the same old thing about the economy about '3 million unemployed' like a broken record - I expect to find John Philpott walking the streets with a billboard with 'the end is nigh' written on it (or maybe the next CIPD conference).

[I wouldn't mind so much if they had spotted the economic downturn first but they didn't they were late to the party and have been trying to make up for it ever since - they were at least three months behind our announcement of 100,000 HR jobs at risk back in July 2008 which also outlined the potential unemployment statistics.]

Anyway back to the main feature. There's an opportunity here for the HR/HCM profession to grasp.

The business case now exists for the function to be thrust forward and 'be responsible for organisation design and the likes of reward (amongst other things) on a professional basis'. And I apologise in advance to those organisations where the HR/OD function is.

I would prefer it if the CIPD launched an investigative review of the shortcomings of reward and the related failings in the banking crisis (never mind the failure of whistleblowing policies). If the HR profession is found culpable or just plain ignored on matters of such importance then at least we know where we're starting from.

And if the CIPD aren't then ISHCM/HCMI may well do. It's just a pity we don't have 100,000 members paying £200 a year yet.......

Leading articles in the forthcoming Journal of Applied HCM Volume

2009-02-09T09:08:59Z

Today's blog focuses on the next volume of the Journal of Applied Human Capital Management -Volume 3 Number 1 2009 due out in March.

The article line-up is as follows with a brief narrative of the focus:

Performance based Engagement: Applying the new focus of employee engagement in organisations
Employee engagement as a concept has been with us for some time and a number of organisations have created initiatives to improve 'engagement'. However, the industry is littered with well-meaning frameworks or implementation that have limitations. Too much focus has been on the input side of 'employee' and not enough on the 'organisation' side of collective performance or worse a negative impact of misaligned engagement. This article redresses the balance.
Brave New HR World Part III: Managing in a downturn
This article follows the popularly read 'Brave New HR World' parts I and II from earlier journal volumes. Building on the concepts and practical applications of the first two articles, Part III shows how the HR/HCM function and practitioners can meet the challenges of organisation pressures in harsher economic times and to exploit opportunities to increase value contribution.
Making sense of HR budgets: Applying value-based HR principles
HR function budgets are notoriously messy, often lack a comparative framework and too often open to cost reduction without due diligence. What HR/HCM functions need is a structured framework following value-based HR principles which this article explains.
Evaluating the effectiveness of management of people: Observations from the frontline
As evaluatiing people management effectiveness becomes more popular we look at the empirical evidence provided by the VB-HR(TM) Rating and what practitioners can glean from this.
Evidence based management: What it means for HR practitioners
Evidence based Management (EbM) is a relatively new growing movement based on some old principles. This article explains its significance and what it means for HR/HCM practitioners
Employee engagement: Key learnings from what organisations find and what they do about it
Another article using empirical evidence to provide insight as to what organisations typically find when undertaking employee engagement assessments and what they do and don't do about it....
Human Capital Management versus Human Resource Management:
The way forward?
This article outlines the difference between HCM and HRM. It is becoming clear to a significant number of practitioners that there is a clear demarcation between the two and that HCM is the way forward...
Industry focus: People management in the NHS
An inside look at the effectiveness of people management in NHS Trusts

A fairly interesting line-up as I am sure you will agree making the Journal fairly leading edge in its practical topics.

Previous journal volume and articles in the public domain can be downloaded from http://www.valuentis.com/Publications/Journal/index.htm and/or http://www.ishcm.com/publications.htm

REQUEST

The blog was originally designed to be interactive with the expectation that people would blog in about the concepts and articles in the Journal (amongst other debating topics of current interest).

We know form our records that the Journal articles have been downloaded in some quantity (I'm talking thousands per article here) so unless people like downloading pdfs but don't read them it would suggest quite a readership.

I'd like to think that regular PT/PT blog readers are amongst them.

So please send a comment or a question in (no monologues -we/you don't have the time). I am often disappointed that too much blog comment is on such small things.........let's balance it a bit...

There's no such thing as 'Evidence-based HR'......

2009-02-02T10:33:03Z

Because it's called EVIDENCE-BASED MANAGEMENT whose ethos is the basis of HUMAN CAPITAL MANAGEMENT.

(also note: 'Evidence-based HR' is grammatically incorrect.)

EVIDENCE-BASED MANAGEMENT (EbM or EBMgt) has actually been around for some time and has its roots in Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) and also Evaluation theory (for those who know their social sciences). Evidence-Based Management is also what VaLUENTiS and ISHCM are founded upon. And because our special interest is people and organisations it's why it's called HUMAN CAPITAL MANAGEMENT.

As Head of our Healthcare Management Practice at VaLUENTiS I am surrounded by tomes such as the 'Evidence-Based Practice Manual' (1000+ pages!) for example.

EVIDENCE-BASED MANAGEMENT is a growing movement (acceptance) that proposes that management (i.e. people management) requires far more use of 'evidence' - use of science around decision making and 'informed' organisation practice, for example. The use of data. fact, analytics, scientific rigour, critical evaluation, critically evaluated research/case studies, indeed evidence of this nature is what it is about.

It's about the combination of qualitative and quantitative intelligence to provide establish intelligence/knowledge to apply.

IT'S NOT about anecdote, stories, ephemeral mini-case studies, 'just add water' mentalities, single-loop learning, causes, one-person experience or indeed anything beloved of so much in the 'HR field' of supposed learning and application for practitioners.

And it's time the 'HR community' got this.

It's about the use of critically-evaluated models and frameworks and research. I'm often disappointed with UK research in people management and HR functional stuff for example because it is often long on citation but short on practical understanding.

This also goes for the plethora of 'market research' masquerading as research in HR. It's essentially done for PR purposes more than 'the science' which is the real value. And there's too much research done for research sake in HR rather than for scientific advancement. (Associates on the ISHCM HCMI course see this BIG.........)

So why is it new?

Well it's not really new as a concept but it is new in terms of application. Those of you who have read my previous blogs know that I have been scathing on the 'amateur' status that pervades through the HR/management community.

Now before we start yet another fad/bandwagon of HR terminology we should really use what's already there. So the next time somebody says 'Evidence based HR' just ask them where did it emanate from - you will be able to distinguish between the charlatan and the practitioner pretty quickly. It's also a case of HRM/HCM practitioners being up with the curve (rather than erroneously thinking they're ahead of it when they're actually behind it).

If you want to read more on this subject try:

'Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths & Total Nonsense: Profiting from Evidence-Based Management' by Pfeffer and Sutton, Harvard Business School Press 2006

'Effective Organisation Leadership: A case of adopting Evidence-based Management' by me Journal of Applied Human Capital Management, Volume 2 Number 1 2008

'The Halo Effect' by Phil Rosenzweig, Free Press 2007

You heard it here first......

ENOUGH OF THIS 'EQUALITY' SCAREMONGERING......

2009-01-27T09:16:55Z

I know I wasn't the only one rather bewildered by the statements made yesterday over the concern of the number of womens' jobs lost at the start of the recession.

As Harriet Harman and her 'flashmob' run up another hill to carry out a 'ghost-witchhunt' over equality - the question is 'did she/they stop and think for one moment?

One suspects not and hysterical shouting has now broken out.

[1] A simple economic explanation.

For example, if Harriet had taken the time to call on her local 'Woolies store' before it shut down she may have noticed something. For one that the female to male ratio seemed to be in the order of FOUR-to-ONE.

The Woolworths staff I suspect have not yet hit the statistics but in retail this ratio is not uncommon.

Thus, I'm afraid that if retail and (financial services retail) have borne the brunt so far it won't take much IQ to understand why female full-time jobs and (part-time for that matter) probably outnumber male jobs lost so far.

(Though I've no doubt she will be 'pleased' that Corus made redundancies yesterday which were mostly male and 'even things up a bit' - such would the vacuous argument run!)

You see, Harriet, in the rush to proclaim jobs for everyone Ministers didn't distinguish the types of jobs and their resilience in the face of economic distress - many in retail can prove illusory.

Interestingly, I note that several commentators have jumped on some 'new jobs' recently created quoting ALDI, Morrisons, Sainsbury and McDonalds. All very laudable but NOT pointing out that these are all food retail of one sort or another.

What are we doing - eating our way out of recession???????????

[2] The legal front

We already have enough 'equality' employment legislation to sink a BATTLESHIP........

Given the scenario, is an employer faced with the unedifying prospect of cutting jobs going to:

(a) Do the best they can in the circumstances to follow legislative guidelines, or
(b) Invite even further potential cost risk (litigation) by singling out particular individuals and risk PR opprobium as well - for what would turn out to be a minor difference in costs?

If you're an employer I would have thought that (a) would be your choice.

I guess there may well be a few (b)s dotted about (!?) and frankly its their decision if they want to go there.

But Harriet don't tar everybody with the same brush with some hysterical vacuous argument that sows the seeds of unnecessary doubt.

It insults employers. It insults males who have lost their jobs. It also insults female intelligence. And it should insult professionals. Get out of the victim space..........

[3] Dealing with the real issue

We've got to deal with issue of unemployment with an intelligent mindset. This sort of thing belongs to the middle-ages. Don't genderise a general issue its very divisive.

As I said a few months ago the UK needs an economic/human capital strategy as the current bankrupt one is being shown up for what it is - i..e built on sand........

All HCM professionals should denounce this extraordinary 'initiative'........I for one am bristling when there is so much other stuff to focus on from a media perspective.................

[4] What I really wanted to talk about...

I really wanted to report that amid all the 'gloom and doom' whether generally or all things HR, that the 2009 HCMI class got underway last week.

A great two days. It's a pleasure to 'do learning' with such qualified people who have a bent for learning and still be doing their day jobs (by the way 80% female ratio).

One of the class of 2008 came to present their experience. My thanks to Rob (you know who you are!). It makes it all worthwhile despite the cynics, the knockers and the general apathy.........

Well it looks like the HCMI is here to stay - pity the profession's media aren't interested in following up some real stuff of substance.........

NJH

Value-based HR /UK bank bail-outs 2/'Sully'/Great exam answers (not!)

2009-01-19T09:37:43Z

What is value-based HR?

Well, without being facetious it does what is says 'on the tin', i.e. HR is value-based. But value here isn't just a one-dimensional financial aspect but actually seven if you conduct a proper VB-HR exercise.

And by the way HR function cost-reduction by itself is not value-based. I'll say that again..... HR function cost-reduction by itself is not value-based. Just once more......... HR function cost-reduction by itself is not value-based.

Why do I repeat this?

Well - I've been repeating this over and over again in various blog entries/presentations etc to combat the 'lazy thinking' that prevails too often in HR function circles. We're only two weeks into the New Year and already I've seen more PR announcements of HR cutting costs like it's the reason it's there.

TRY THIS: The reason the HR function exists is to cut its own costs.

Say it a few more times. Feeling a tad embarrassed? Stupid even? To the point of questioning what you're saying? Quite right....

And yet here we are with various HR Directors lining up to say that very thing. That isn't value-based HR it's moronic HR. We've collectively just spent the last 15 years + trying to build out of the 'personnel function' tag with its limited administration focus, only to then seemingly 'box' ourselves back into the 'box'.

Now there's nothing wrong if you want to be 'Personnel' in the transactional/administrative sense. The problem being as I have said before in that all things 'personnel' can be pretty much outsourced. Not much of an HR profession there.

From a personal standpoint, we've started 2009 with the busiest we've ever known because it seems that an increasing number of clients are getting the bigger picture of people management evaluation (i.e. understanding exactly what the organisation requires as a value proposition from the HR/OD/HCM function) and then linking this with the HR function activity/budget/capability in a robust methodical way.

This provides true value-based HR which aligns HR (we hate this word but people still use it) with the organisation. Simple really.

If the answer is more 'workforce intelligence' -FINE. If it's focus more on employee engagement/productivity/talent management/leadership etc - FINE. If it's line managers doing more - FINE, etc. If the answer is 'shared services' - FINE. If it's 'outsourcing' or 'selective outsourcing' - FINE. If it's 'transforming' -FINE. If it's more of the same at less cost - FINE. If it's upgrading technology - FINE.

The answer when conducting VB-HR properly is normally all of these, some of these or any combination of these. But we have NEVER encountered a case where simply 'reducing HR cost' was the answer...........

And just once more: If the answer to the question was 'reducing HR function cost' what does that say about the HR function's value proposition??

Any accountant will tell you that reducing cost is easy, very easy. The point is - what are you getting for it?

From a corporate function perspective like HR, if it's 'the same as before' then that's an open admission that you were inefficient previously.
If it's 'we focus on reducing costs we worry about the consequences later' variety then that's an open admission of HR leadership failure.
If it's 'we're doing what we've been asked to do' then see (2) above.

AND FINALLY - can we drop the 'three-legged stool' before I throw it at someone............

REMEMBER - Value-based HR - it just might advance the HR function rather than just saving it.................or in fact not being there at all internally.
If you want to understand more - just re-read some of the stories in PT last week -it's not hard to see where it's currently heading...........

UK BANK BAIL-OUTS 2 (THE RETURN OF)/THE ECONOMY
I warned you. I said after the first round it's like a horror 'B' movie where the story finishes too quickly and you know it's not finished. To misquote Oscar Wilde (The Importance of Being Earnest):

"To issue 'one' UK bank bail-out is unfortunate. To issue 'two' looks like carelessness....."

For those who still think that the economy will be OK - you better start peeping at the TV screen. This is more scary than any slasher movie.....Last week I talked about incompetence it is now clear that the UK Government is completely clueless and incompetent to deal with the current debacle....

The latest forecasts don't read very good - see the latest from the well-respected Ernst & Young ITEM Club (GDP shrinking by 2.7% in 2009, 3.25 million unemployed by end 2010).

Now I always like to enlighten people with certain data/facts. It's not my intention to scare people (well -ok, occasionally) but here's some interesting stuff from the online CIA factbook which I have no reason to disbelieve from an economic standpoint.....

Debt external
[Definition] This entry gives the total public and private debt owed to non-residents repayable in foreign currency, goods, or services. These figures are calculated on an exchange rate basis, i.e., not in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms.
As at 30 June 2007

Remember:
A trillion is 1,000,000,000,000
A billion is 1,000,000,000
A million is 1,000,000

Now the theory runs that supposedly developed countries like ours can have an 'external debt' (i.e. financed by the world) but only up to a point. Iceland have tried it and spectacularly failed because theirs wasn't developed/balanced enough (overly reliant on finance).

Our economy is dangerously imbalanced (more so than the US, Germany or France for example, and of course smaller).
Should we be worried by this? What do you think?
No answers on postcards please..........

THAT MAN 'SULLY'
On to some uplifting news.
Chesley B Sullenberger III, known as 'Sully' - what a guy!

If you've been living in a cave or for that matter The Treasury/No 10, Sully is of course the 'hero captain' who managed to land the stricken US Airways flight in the Hudson river safely. A split second decision on where to land given the scenario and he chose right....

Never mind the skilled landing on water, it's reported that he walked up and down the airplane twice as it was sinking to ensure that everybody got off to safety. He then phoned his wife to say 'there's been an accident'.
And they say leadership is dead...........

GREAT EXAM ANSWERS
Part of teaching the School's HCMI course (which incidentally has seen a big increase in interest and a jump in class size) is to find some 'fun' anecdotes to use in the workshops.
Cue: ' F IN EXAMS' - the best test paper blunders, a marvellous little book by Richard Benson.
I couldn't stop laughing out loud. Here are some examples of real student answers to exam questions:
Q: Explain the term 'free press'
A: When your mum irons your trousers
Q: What is a random variable?
A: Someone with multiple personalities
Q: Describe the term 'stakeholder'
A: A vampire hunter. Buffy being the most famous.
Q: What does the phrase 'case study' mean?
A: It is a process whereby you sit and stare at your suitcase before you go on holiday but not knowing what to pack
Q: Please fill in the sections of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs below
A: (provided in triangle format)
Cake
Ice cream
Crème egg
Biscuits
Chocolate buttons

There are many, many more and if you like this sort of thing then buy the book! For £5.99, its value is exceptional. Clearly if only wit was matched by knowledge.

Talking of exam question blunders, this takes us back to the beginning:
Q: What is value based HR?
A: ....
Q: The reason the HR function exists is?
A: ....

'Be seeing you'.....
(a tribute 'Prisoner' reference to Patrick McGoohan who sadly died last week)

I predict a riot........

2009-01-12T21:44:41Z

Apart from the economy, the only other major domestic story is that of the continuing (and growing) saga of Heathrow and a subject I touched upon last year with the potential options.

It would seem that against the growing (and formerly suppressed evidence) the Government is to give the go-ahead for a further runway.

Heathrow has a very interesting history of deception and broken promises (see an excellent recent article by John Vidal in The Guardian).

Personally, as a business person, an advocate of social responsibilty, a human capitalist and the fact that I live under one of Heathrow's flightpaths I perhaps have a multi-faceted view of the scenario.

1. The business view.

Fact: this expansion of Heathrow can be carried out elsewhere whether its at Gatwick, Luton, Stanstead, Isle of Dogs (as proposed) or any where in a radius not in a built up residential area.

Thus the risk to jobs, as stated by Derek Simpson of the Unite Union, (should the 'UN' be replaced by SH in Unite?) is particularly bogus as these would be available wherever it was planned. The argument for businesses is similar as Heathrow is not the only option.

2. Social Responsibility

Any way in which you want to cut it, The Government, DfT, BAA, BA, Unite have questions to answer when you look at the suppressed/misrepresented evidence (there is more than enough controversial evidence against). It would appear that social responsiblity has some unique interpretations to suit particular arguments. Morality and ethics seem to be in short supply.

3. Human capital view

Noise, pollution and traffic volume. These three have devastating effects on humans and local communities (never mind the increasing risk of catastrophic disaster). And yet we continue to conveniently ignore the implications. We are not talking of a few hundred people here but hundreds of thousands - that's why there is such opposition to this expansion. What happened to human capital rights? I thought that we were living in a socially leaning environmnent - or is that only for a few 'glamorous' reasons for people to look good? These are British people.

4. Personal view

My family live under a flightpath. We chose to because of the location and amenities. We can just about put up with the noise with quadruple glazing from a few miles out. Flights apparently start to arrive at 05.30am but invariably earlier we are told because they can - so 04.30 we've increasingly noticed becomes the norm (spot the schedule creep?).

They tend to finish at around midnight where peace descends for a few hours. This will go of course with the new runway and the frequency of flights will also increase. God knows what it must be like for those living closer and without quadruple glazing.

Because of this last evidence I can understand the objections.

The sleight of hand used by the Government, BAA, BA etc on more than one occasion increases the lack of trust and the strength of feeling. And it could get ugly.....very ugly.....

I have observed a few commentators who simply, without checking the facts or thinking for more than a few microseconds, say why don't people just move? Its such a fatuous argument that I am not even going to respond to it.

Funny that this same argument for airport business is completely overlooked.

Of course - if we had been clever as a Nation the Olympics could have provided us with both a new airport and a reconstruction (on the Heathrow site) but I guess it's a lot to ask nowadays in our country to think so joined-up.

One final comment. Being aware of the impact of flying on the environment I have flown fairly infrequently over the past few years. This week I flew for the first time in a while.

Living a few miles from Heathrow, where did I fly from? Yep - NOT Heathrow. I avoid it like the plague as I can't stand the hassle of getting to it or stand the overcrowded terminals.

I flew from Luton.......

Postscript:

As usual with blog entries another coincidence with news breaking this morning that a piece of land needed for runway construction has been bought by a Greenpeace coalition see BBC news story 'Protestors buy up Heathrow land'.

NJH

Incompetence is all around - you don't have to look hard.......

2009-01-08T16:43:48Z

A Good New Year to you.

Yes...back early. Officially it's the 19th January where I concentrate on all things around value based HR or human capital management as we also call it.

So why today? Well - we're a few days into the New Year and already the evidence is rather short on talent but plenty on incompetence. It's a theme of several of my blog entries last year. I'd rather hoped it would go away but it doesn't.......

Those of you who frequented Euston station yesterday morning would have been on the receiving end of some exceptional incompetence by Network Rail. Bad luck they said. Yes maybe the awful plane crash but not the continuing collapse of cable lines every day....Rush job - you bet...rather like plumbing really.

Cracked water pipes in Wales because the water company was unprepared? You're joking right? (as an aside, a member of my family has just had an electricity cut and a colleague was subject to no water yesterday evening)

Then there's the Chancellor......suddenly he's realised that the upturn he forecast isn't going to happen. Gosh that's pretty good. You have to go to a special school to get it that badly wrong....ask John Grieve at the Bank of England who effectively admitted that they were asleep at the wheel - underestimating the effects of the 'crazy borrowing' taking place. That's special. To admit it - well it's just extra-special....

Just a question - what are these people being paid for?

But there's more.....

To the bank teller who entered my first name wrong (even though it's on the system) on a new bank card which has caused no end of problems.....

To the barista who continually doesn't listen to my coffee order....

To the mobile phone company who couldn't even, after 6 calls, upgrade my package (and lost it altogether) for wasting my time....(I'd been a loyal customer of 7 years)

And don't forget a special mention to the obnoxious TV licencing people who couldn't be bothered to update my records but could send out threatening letters to the new address....

To the various checkout staff who are far more interested in having a conversation with a colleague instead of serving the growing queue of customers (I won't mention this highly rated foodstore's name)...

Or to the overly(newly)-trained check-out staff who try and strike up a conversation you don't need (incompetent training/management).......

Or those that can't put something in a bag without taking half an hour.....

Basically whatever/wherever you transact whether its banking, phones, utilities, purchasing of any kind the incidence of not fulfilling on the value proposition or receiving bad service seems to be totally out of proportion.

There is a great piece in 'The Independent' today headlined 'Bad service and grumpy Britons put tourism jobs at risk' (slightly different to the headline on the frontpage!). Basically, poor service is forecast to mean job losses in the tourism sector.

Another piece in The Guardian on Tuesday about 'incompetent' teachers - 'Those who can't teach'. There's reckoned to be about 15,000 or so teachers who deserve the sack according to Chris Woodhead. The article starts by asking the question: Is it right for 'incompetent' teachers to be hounded out of the profession? To which my answer is astonishingly YES or it can't call itself a profession. The NUT may think differently. But let's not worry about our future human capital, eh? I've not even mentioned the SATS fiasco.

The there's another special kind of incompetence - one that you can't even make up - see for example 'Clean, on time and empty. The 'ghost bus' that runs solely to spare ministers' blushes'. You've got to read it to begin to believe it.........

Maybe recessionary times brings us back to doing the basics well. And we'll be better for it.

Those of you who have read my blog recently will have noted criticisms around the UK's economic strategy and economic management and its impact on the country's workforce as well as its wider impications. I'm not saying anymore but I would direct you to some recent articles that are well-written and provide thoughtful insight.

A selection includes:

To live in remarkable times (James Meek)

We're going back to work but will we be sitting comfortably? (Andrew Oswald)

With all these trillions, how can we keep hold of the meaning of money? (Max Hastings)

No green shoots in sight as recession bites (Gary Duncan)

Choices made in 2009 will shape the globe's destiny (Martin Wolf)

Clearly there is still some competence around....

Going into 2009 its clear that one thing for organisations and HR functions is to concentrate on competence and maybe just maybe you might find a sustainable proposition at the expense of somebody who isn't competent.....

As usual we're busy as the School gets ready for its 2009 HCMI class whilst at VaLUENTiS we're busy with employee engagement, productivity and HR function effectiveness.

But more on that on 19th...be seeing you.....

Footnote 2: The real top ten tips for HR in a recession

2008-12-19T10:04:22Z

As I saw one of my old firms providing 'top ten tips' for HR in a recession which bordered on the facile, i.e. most obvious and bland I thought that I'd provide you with the real version, tongue-in-cheekly of course!

The Real top ten

1. Make sure you know the FD's children names and favourite holiday spots. Use all HR resource possible to find out as much as you can and stay close to the FD.

2. It's all about cashflow and for HR - budgets (but you knew that anyway right?). Make sure that whatever budget you have is the same as the one the FD sees - good for him/her to know that you're being proactive.

3. Proactively suggest (after some fag packet workings) across the board 15% HR budget cut keeping 10% in reserve (which will be asked for later on in the year).

4. Make sure you've identified your enemies in the line. Be prepared - a downturn increases negative political behaviour. Even better get your shot in first.

5. Time to finally bite the bullet and use the opportunity to get rid of that whingeing business partner who thinks the company would fail if she wasn't there. Now's the time. You may of course have more than one. Years of pain will be released - recessions are cathartic.

6. Get the Financial Times daily (if you don't already). Three important things. (i) keeps you abreast of economic/company pain; (ii) you can work out whether your CEO will survive this downturn and plan accordingly; (iii) it makes you look good

7. Make sure that you can gauge where the organisation is in terms of people management and employee engagement (using our solutions of course!) if you haven't already got a fix on these and their link with productivity and organisational performance

8. Focus on value-based HR support. 'Think' and 'do'. It's all about survival.

9. Keep a bottle of whisky in the lower drawer just in case!

10. Keep a pistol in the bottom drawer just in case!