Changing Role of HR – Perspective of HR Analytics

HR analytics, is analysis used to make better decisions about all aspects of HR strategy with the goal of improving business performance.The future of HR analytics depends on integration within a company.The current state of HR analytics for predicting for its future suggests that the future of HR analytics depends heavily on data integration with emphases on integrating business disciplines and centralizing data.According to Deloitte’s 2016 Global Human Capital Trends report, 86% of Australian businesses surveyed rate HR analytics as being a highly important factor in their workforce planning.

Companies can easily take advantage of a single platform that supports a full range of HR processes, including talent strategy and planning; sourcing and recruiting; performance management, learning and development; talent review and succession planning and compensation.

Analytics can also give HR professionals a better understanding of how effective their actions are. For example, analysts can look for patterns in HR data that can help companies improve hiring or reduce attrition, or pinpoint areas where labour-related savings can be achieved.

Analytics can also be used to support training, development and other activities that are more closely tailored to individual employee needs – thereby helping HR deliver more customized options for employees. As the Accenture research notes, HR can use analytics to segment employees in much the same way that marketers segment customers. For instance, companies can group employees by a wider range of criteria that include learning styles, values, personality, wellness profiles, mobility, behavioural patterns, and networking and communication styles.” Using that approach, HR can customize programs for smaller and smaller segments, helping to increase employee performance, engagement and retention.

Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS) are the databases, software and computer systems that companies use to maintain their human resources: payroll, time off, employee records, benefits, and more.HR metrics is the data used to quantify the cost and the impact of talent management programs and HR processes and measure the success of HR initiatives.

R is the most used HR analytics tool. R is great for statistical analysis and visualization which is very suited to explore huge data sets. It enables you to analyse and clean data sets with millions of data.

R-Studio is an open source and enterprise-ready professional software package for R. It basically does everything that R does but has a friendlier user interface. The interface contains a code editor, the R console, an easily accessible workspace, and history and room for plots and files.

Microsoft’s Power BI It makes the aggregation, analysis, and visualization of data very simple. With Power BI, it’s a cinch to connect to multiple source systems, like SQL databases with people data, a live twitter feed and/or machine learning APIs. All these different data sources are then combined in Power BI. This simple aggregation process enables you to combine multiple data sources in one large database.

Some of the other HR analytic Software which are hugely popular are – Oracle HR Analytics, Talent Soft Analytics, People Insight, Sum HR to name a few.

In short term there are and will be start-ups in specialist areas, like in team or network analysis, engagement, performance, strategic workforce planning etc and the cloud-based HR management systems (delivering most of the data). These two areas will soon see the consolidation into larger systems and service offerings.
Finally, the costs of these technologies will reduce which will help spread the use and demands for analytics as smaller organizations will be able to afford to deploy this.

The Future of HR

HR has been evolving a lot as a function in the recent times. The talent pool has been increasing, and as a consequence organizations are looking at HR as a strategic role more importantly than before.

SEE ALSO: Women in HR profession

In a recent survey done by the Society for Human Resource Management, HR professionals say that the three biggest challenges facing HR executives over the next 10 years are :

  1. Retaining and rewarding the best employees as in Talent Retention.
  2. Developing the next generation of corporate leaders as in succession planning.
  3. Creating a corporate culture that attracts the best employees and creating a talent pool as in Talent Engagement.

So if we look at the upcoming 10 years of HR, here is what will be different and dynamic :

HR will be flexible

As per a recent survey of SHRM, providing flexible work arrangements will be a top priority for organizations. 9 to 5 work culture may move to more flexi timings, as young professionals are looking for places where they can have the chance to take time off to be creative, be able to take a break without being monitored, or even work from home with pre-assigned objectives.

Employees want greater flexibility and will excel in their performance if they are allowed to adjust both their work and personal lifestyle. HR is starting to understand that, we see many startups and MNC’s implementing such methods and the next 10 years will only bring more of this.

HR will be more social.

Intranet, internal social platforms, and many other ways of promoting online collaboration and communication across the company will be part of HR responsibilities in the future. HR can use social tools to predict behaviors in office performance by giving extra benefits to high performers of the month or give incentives to employees who are great performers and represent the organization. The work experience will be taken live and will bring a stronger social component to organizations and their culture.

HR will be mobile

We all know that mobile is the new hot trend in almost every industry; HR is no exception. HR can be app based out of your smartphone in the future (organization specific) .You will want to leave comments, assign tasks, and when arriving to the office have your team already working on such tasks. You will want to able to check, while having a coffee before entering an individual performance meeting, what comments were given during the last meeting. You will want to be able to check how you’re performing in terms of workforce happiness, to check the latest stats on your mobile and give a report to your CEO.

All in all, the lifestyle of an HR person will not be desktop-based. It will be wherever they are, whenever they want and in fact mobile / on the move.

HR will be about data

How many days does it take to hire a new person? What is the best quarter to hire specific profiles? When are people the happiest throughout the year? Who are the most performing people and why? What are the trending skills we need to acquire in the next hire? These and many more questions are all connected to the hot topic of big data. But data is meaningless without interpretation and context. HR will have a great deal of responsibility in analyzing the data, interpreting it and making the right decisions in order to ensure the right acquisition, training, development and retention of talent, all a part of people analytics.

HR will be integrated

HR will be composed by tech savvy people, data scientists, and recruitment experts. People that are able to do copywriting, for job descriptions that correspond to the company culture. People that are able to read and interpret data and forecast trends. People that are on top of the latest technology and can solve problems or bring additional benefits to the company. People that are connectors, socially active and can attract more talents to the company. HR will be about diversity of skills.

The next decade is crucial for HR to evolve and become a key role in any organization. HR might no longer be a single department in the future. HR might be part of something greater in the years to come.

Engaging for the Future | PEOPLE MANAGER CONCLAVE 2012

IILM students participated in the IBM People Manager Conclave 2012 which gave an insight about the challenges faced by the present HR managers and what strategies/ tactics can be used in order to align their individual goals with the organisational goals. Theme of this event was “Engaging for the future.” This event involved various activities such as:-

  • Panel discussion on “GEN- Y” and “ Managing 360 degree
  • Students were enlightened on the topic by:
    • Pari Sadasivan- India Delivery Leader @ IBM Global Process Services
    • Ashish Kumar- General Manager @ IBM Global Technology Services
    • Sanjiva S Dubey- Service Delivery Executive @ IBM Global Business Services
  • Lecture on “ Creating a High Performance Culture” delivered by
    • Dhirender Jagdev- CRM @ IBM Global Process Services
    • Abhishek Sharma- CRM @ IBM Global Process Services
    • Vinayak Sastri- S&D @ SMS CoE

    GEN-Y, also known as the Millennial Generation, is the demographic cohort following Generation X. The generation born in the 1980s and 1990s, typically regarded as increasingly familiar with digital and electronic technology. The session focused on the issue like GEN-Y tends to move from organisation to organisation in a very short span of time. Role of career planning for such workforce was discussed. Thus, to have a better and motivated Gen-Y need for a mentoring program through which their career planning could be done was emphasised within the session. The biggest challenge for the HR managers would be how to retain GEN-Y employees and make them committed towards the organisational work.

    Pari Sadasivan gave her real life corporate examples which were enlightening. She also talked about the importance of the focus team session, move fast, no subtitue for the talent, integrity, clarity and humility. She concluded as how people managers were earlier considered as managers only to manage the workforce. But now HR managers are the business partners who make and support the organisational vision and strategy to be possible.

    Creating a high performance culture in the organisation through below mentioned points were outlined:

    1. Matrix organisation
    2. Decentralisation
    3. Team player
    4. Building trust
    5. 7S model of change
    6. Collaborative decision making
    7. Prepare for change
    8. Manage operation and strategy
    9. Work-life balance
    10. Performance and Benefits

    Role of HR manager in bringing about the change was discussed. HR manager should be:

    1. Change Agent
    2. Employee Champion
    3. Administrative expert
    4. Strategic Partner

    Another important fact regarding HR is managing 360 degree. 360 degree feedback is very important in an organisation but it is not necessary that employees should worry about it. Employees should be able to contribute towards the individual and organisational betterment. It is necessary to have a good feedback but it is always necessary for the employee to work in the organisation according to the need of the organisation without thinking about the feedback.

    Leadership is skill that a manger should possess. Thus a leader should be able to motivate his employee to do their work. A video on leadership of Emma Brandon, award winner of Britain’s Best Boss was shown in the conclave. She was a senior charge nurse at a mental facility who was motivating the employees and the patients. She invited ideas from the employees to make their work better and to cure the patients in a better way. Thus this increased the number of cured patients and employees were also happy to work there. The decision making in the medical facility was decentralised and new ideas were invited from all employees which made a feeling of belongingness among the employees. She also had pleasure trips and games for the patients in the medical facility centre which was a better treatment for them. Thus a leader should be a motivator along with directive and supporting.

    Another insight was given by Mr. Durga Kota on is experience in different parts of the world and how he was able to manage he work force. The keys mantras which kept in to connect IBM with Bharti were building trust worthy collaborative team, to be a team player, prepare oneself for changes, manage operation and strategy and manage matrix organisation.

    Thus the conclave gave an insight of the different aspects about the people manager to be taken to consideration as most of the organisation neglect or don’t appreciate their work. Thus it is important for an organisation to take their people manager as a business partner for the organisation.

Enhancing Workplace Learning: Role of Coaching and Mentoring

Swiss Re, a Zurich-based global re-insurance firm achieved an impressive turnaround moving from a loss of $ 663 million in 2008 to a net income of $4.2 billion in 2012. By 2015 the company aims to generate 20-25 per cent revenues from high growth markets. This requires talented people with right skills and languages as well as agility and passion to perform. In response to this, the company has embraced the 70-20-10 learning and development model to support the targeted business growth. In this model, 70 per cent is geared to learning on the job through rotations and stretch assignments, 20 per cent is focused on learning from coaching and mentoring and 10 per cent is invested in formal training methods such as seminars and e-training. Thus the company is using a range of means to strengthen continuous learning and development with strategic investment and focus on workplace learning.

Today, organisations are working in an environment that is increasingly disrupted by consumers, technology and regulatory shifts. In such a scenario the traditional classroom model of learning is doomed. As a result, organisations are exploring new approaches for employee development that are not tied to the formal structured methods around the classes, courses and curricula model. In part this interest has been driven by economic consideration. Pressures to lower training costs and reduce budgets for travel have been a major factor. But this focus is also driven by the realization that a majority of adult learning occurs not through formal learning but through experience, practice, conversations and reflection in the workplace. Added to this is the emerging appreciation of the important role the context plays in learning. Focus on workplace learning has not been confined to any particular business sector or to specific group of employees but is being adopted across wide range of industries, agencies and government departments.

Rationale for workplace learning

The publication of research and survey data over the past decade indicates that workplace and informal learning offer an effective and efficient solutions to improved workplace performance. People learn 70 per cent of what they know about their jobs informally (Loewensteinn and Spletzer,1996). This has been validated in the body of research in the ensuing years. Capital Works study reports that approximately 75 per cent of the skills employee use on the job were learned informally through discussions with co workers, self study, mentoring by managers and similar methods. Casebow and Ferguson (2010) found that most frequent and effective approaches to learning used were informal chats with colleagues (80 per cent) and on the job instruction from managers and colleagues (45 per cent). Exact percentages may vary from study to study but it indicates the importance of workplace learning . Some of the most critical skills to workplace success, communication, collaboration, teamwork and even technical skills, are cultivated through invaluable and ongoing informal workplace learning: mentoring, coaching, peer reviews and job shadowing.

Coaching and mentoring

Workplace coaching is a collaborative, solution-focused, result-oriented and systematic process in which the coach facilitates the enhancement of work performance and the selfdirected learning and personal growth of individual (Greene & Grant, 2003). Mentoring is an interactive process occurring between individuals of differing levels of experience and expertise which incorporates interpersonal or psycho-social development, career and/or educational development, and socialisation functions into the relationship (Carmin, 1988). Broadly speaking, coaching supports individuals and teams in building skills that increase performance while mentoring is primarily about developing capability and potential. (CIPD,2009). Coaching has a short term focus vis-a- vis mentoring which focuses on long term development.

Most companies position coaching as an investment in high-performers. Individual coaching often focuses on the top layers of the firm. Team coaching is offered using experiential learning such as business simulations and team exercises. Mentoring is offered to emerging talents as a relationship outside the regular reporting line that helps them develop and move successfully through times of change and transition. A more experienced person is matched with another less experienced one and acts as a listener and guide in questions of business and personal development. Interaction with senior managers helps develop a more sophisticated and strategic perspective on the firm and its direction, values and ways of working (Day 2001). Coaching and mentoring help accelerate learning to create impact at the individual, group and business level as they are geared to people and teams with significant involvement in organisational change process (Vera&Crossan,2004).

UK’s Chartered Institute of Personnel Management reports that 51 per cent of companies (sample of 500) ‘consider coaching as a key part of learning development’ and ‘crucial to their strategy’, with 90 per cent reporting that they use coaching. More recent research in 2011 by Qa Research found that 80 per cent of organisations surveyed had used or are now using coaching. According to Toyota’s philosophy, the responsibility to develop people falls squarely on the line manager, not on the HR department or the trainer in the classroom. The next generation is developed through coaching of daily work. Employees are given challenging assignments by managers. The development lies in the stretch between their current ability and the learning they need to go through to complete the assignment successfully. In addition to defining the right stretch to each member, the manager must also coach and support the member throughout the assignment to help him or her succeed, all the while leaving enough room to think, allowing mistakes and using each one as a stepping stone to development.

Companies like Smithkline Beecham, Cadbury, Hewlett Packard, Mckinsey & Co, Infosys to name a few are using mentoring to develop their employees from initial stage Mariott International and Bank of America have formal mentoring programmes. Here, more senior professionals and mangers team up with less experienced protegees with the aim of assisting the protegee to improve their performance and career progress. The accounting firm KPMG made ‘online mentoring program’ part of its employer of choice initiative . Nestlé has launched several mentoring schemes at different levels in the organisation. Credit risk company Experian has since 2008 been running a global talent development forum and internal mentoring initiative the Experian Business Network for its high potential and diverse emerging talent.

Benefits of coaching and mentoring

Coaching and mentoring help employees to

► To adjust to the culture in an organization: The Coach/Mentor can provide the new worker with information on the corporate culture, organizational structure and procedures that will help the younger professional settle into his role in the business.
► Help in employee growth and development: Coaching and mentoring programmes provide the mentee with real-world knowledge that bridges the gap between educational theory and actual business practices.
► Those serving as coaches and mentors within an organization gain personal and professional satisfaction by sharing their expertise with other employees.
► A supportive atmosphere can improve employee morale and loyalty, thereby helping to reduce turnover and boost productivity.
► Companies can align the goals of the business with a mentoring programme to gain a competitive edge.

Conclusion

Coaching and mentoring, whether formal or informal, provide a simple and cost-effective way to enhance enterprise learning and provide direct and specific learning and development to employees. They help employees improve their essential skills, reinforce strong relationships among employees, support a learning culture in the workplace, and increase productivity.