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!
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Before we put on the armour and go HR dragon slaying, we have been looking at the best way to share our favourite HR Transformation articles with you, so its worth checking out our new
HR Transformation Magazine format below. All our recent articles are featured here in addition to the HR Transformer Blog. Bookmark this for your daily scoops on HR Strategy, Recruitment, HR Shared Services, Change Management, Business Transformation, Leadership, Learning, HR Outsourcing, HR Technology and other randomness.
We are now getting towards the end of the year, so it is a good time to look at what we should
Stop, Start and Continue in 2013 both personally and professionally. At the top of our STOP list are the dreaded annual Performance Reviews……
Why Performance Reviews Don't Improve Performance
When we hear the phrase "would you mind if I give you some feedback?" what that actually means to most of us is "would you mind if I gave you some negative feedback?" wrapped up in the guise of constructive criticism, whether you want it or not. According to Williams,
“constructive feedback, which is usually critical, rarely helps anyone, and certainly rarely improves employee performance on the job.”
The prevailing theory is that criticism, which invariably is part of the performance review, will improve the employee's performance, and in addition the employee will positively welcome it. Nothing can be further from the truth.
The reality is that the traditional performance appraisal as practiced in the majority of organisations today is often incongruent with our values-based, vision-driven and collaborative work environments,yet Performance reviews have become institutionalised.
Samuel Culbert, a professor at the UCLA Anderson School of Management "this corporate sham is one of the most insidious, most damaging and yet most ubiquitous of corporate activities."
If you can look your Executive in the eye and tell them that the annual performance review is worth the effort, then fine. However, if you have ever wondered whether they really do increase the performance levels in your organisation – then read this article for a different perspective.
Our view is, If your appraisal doesn’t improve performance then do something else with the time and energy this will free up.
The second HR dragon to be slayed this month is the Employee Engagement Survey. This article was written by Jacque Vilet at TLNT. Most people recognise that engaged and motivated employees are more productive, however are we getting the murky lines between correlation and causation mixed up?
A typical quote from the those selling the merits of Engagement Surveys is :
“high engagement firms have a shareholder return that is 19% higher”
But isn't this a bit like saying :-
“more intelligent firms have a shareholder return that is 19% higher”
OR
“healthier firms have a shareholder return that is 19% higher”
All possibly true, but the question for me is, is the shareholder return higher because of higher engagement or is higher engagement just correlated with higher shareholder returns?
Of course successful organisations have higher engagement levels, profit margin and productivity. They are possibly healthier and more intelligent too. In these organisations, The Executive is getting something right on strategy and management.
I do vaguely remember torturous statistics modules at University – and it was drummed into our heads by exasperated Psychology Professors that Correlation does not imply Causation.
Making the assumption that higher employee engagement improves shareholder value is a bit like saying that
"Sleeping with one's shoes on is strongly correlated with waking up with a headache.
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.”
We just do not know enough about the specific causes of high employee engagement.
Again if the activity conducting Engagement Surveys and associated reporting is only neutral on productivity, then it is not worth doing. You could be doing something better instead – like analysing specific performance issues.
So, why are engagement surveys so fashionable ? This is another topic for another day, but a quick answer is (1) they are much easier than doing a proper root cause analysis (2) they are pushed by a powerful sales effort. Enough said for now.
To some, HR Outsourcing is another dragon that should be slayed, but we think there is still some puff in this dragon for the time being….
Our latest HR Transformer Blog article has a look at the The Most important HR outsourcing contracts from last 2 years. Although there have not been too many blockbuster deals, there has been plenty of HR Outsourcing activity in smaller deals and single process outsourcing. Find out which company has created an "HR Ice-Cream Sundae" by mixing up its HR vendors.
The Future of HR & Competencies
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 ?
Some other great articles from November
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.
We hope you have enjoyed 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.
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