a best-practice guide hr hacks: part 2 using technology ...€¦ · using technology effectively to...

HR & PAYROLLSOFTWARE

A BEST-PRACTICE GUIDE TO SOURCING, SELECTING AND BUYING THE

RIGHT PRODUCT FOR YOU

Call: 0113 230 8600 Email: [email protected] Visit: www.cascadehr.co.uk

HR Hacks: Part 2Using technology effectively to

manage change in turbulent times


External forces now influence organisational change more than ever before, with technological, social and economic considerations impacting upon every area of business. So, in the face of continued volatility, can HR professionals use technology to safeguard employee productivity, morale and retention, and can software go so far as to protect, if not further boost, business profitability?

This document will explore this topic from every angle in order to find out.

IntroductionIn a recent Cascade-sponsored webinar, research discovered that only 1.82% of HR professionals believe their organisations deal with change ‘brilliantly’. 57.27% admitted that they ‘cope, but could do better’, whilst 40.91% of respondents said that ‘change is continually a big thing, so tips are certainly needed’.

There can therefore be no disputing that change is continuing apace in the modern business environment, and Human Resources departments are looking for support and guidance in the face of professional uncertainty.

However, whilst many people are content with the theory of change, the actual change process itself is sometimes met with resistance. This has always been the case, and is partly why Lewin’s change management model has grown to become so popular. The carefully considered ‘freeze, change, unfreeze’ concept helps to ensure people pause and review their circumstances before renewing their behaviour. However, the relentless velocity of change that we are witnessing in the current business climate means that companies are often in a constant flux. It is no longer possible to always move methodically from A to B.

The turbulence that has already been caused by Brexit, for example, is undeniable. And, with the UK’s departure from the EU still in its infancy, the uncertainty is likely to continue. However, in truth this is only one reason for modern organisational change.

There are also legislative updates to consider, the potential for mergers and acquisitions, and the ever-more complex talent landscape to navigate. HR departments therefore need to adopt newfound techniques for harnessing and spearheading change as they look to the future of the modern workplace.

In essence, technology needs to take on as much of the hard work as possible. Here’s how it can…


The role of HRFirst thing’s first – HR professionals aren’t here to find all the answers, and they aren’t here to control the entirety of organisational change. However, an HR department is ideally placed to enable, support and fuel employees as they work towards progress, productivity and growth.

People all respond differently to change – we’re human after all. The first step to successfully managing change is to recognise this. Processes shouldn’t attempt to unify behaviour, but technology should, and can, ensure consistency of communication, transparency and accuracy of information, and the triangulation of data to predict what the world could look like as changes unfold.

What does HR technology need to achieve during periods of change?

If HR professionals look for one ‘fix all’ strategy to manage change, they may struggle to find it (although there is certainly a software solution available to maximise the success of the journey!).

In essence, however, the focus should be on the following three points:

1. When planning how to tackle change, HR teams must deduce exactly what is right for their specific organisations, cultures and futures. This is why technology needs to be flexible and fluid, so it can support these unique requirements long into the future.

2. Modern companies are rarely hierarchical in the traditional sense any more. Instead, effective businesses now rely on being successfully networked, with colleagues able to talk to one another and understand what’s going on during the change, as well as what is set to happen next. HR technology must therefore act as a comprehensive hub of information, providing a reassuring constant when there is so much movement elsewhere. That is why HR teams should store and share documents within their software, and allow employees access to their own data for transparency and autonomy.

3. Whilst it isn’t always possible to predict the future, the triangulation of existing employee data and the identification of trends will help to make accurate projections, and to ensure informed decision making moving forward. Reporting suites within intuitive HR technology can now undertake sophisticated calculations in just a few simple clicks, without the need for intensive data forensics or manual information processing.


EXAMPLE

Many organisations conduct routine surveys amongst their workforce, in order to capture and measure metrics such as engagement, confidence and job satisfaction levels. Comparisons can then be drawn amongst different departments, branches and demographics, and the results can also be benchmarked against previous years’ statistics. In principle, such research is a fantastic idea.

However, if surveys are only carried out annually, problems can arise for a number of reasons:

• A once-a-year poll could easily be influenced by a point-in-time factor, such as the overall mood across the business that day, thus distorting the results. And, we only have to look at the constantly evolving opinions surrounding Brexit, for instance, to see how often people change their minds. With this in mind, in the current business climate, HR needs accurate, meaningful information, not misleading data.

• HR departments risk becoming fixated on finding the whole answer to a problem in one go, and there is often very little measurement of progress until the next annual survey. This approach is no longer realistic, given how much fluctuation could occur between those two points in time.

On the other hand, if surveys are conducted more frequently, HR teams will have the opportunity to uncover real-time insight that fuels increased tactical behaviour. Metrics can then be tracked, and actions taken when most relevant, allowing HR professionals to work with a much greater level of agility during periods of change.

The idea of a survey is therefore not new, but finding the right technique to suit your business structure and culture may require careful deliberation and planning.

Which questions to ask?

Continuing with the subject of surveys, it’s important to realise that the workplace has evolved significantly in the last five years. This means that HR teams now need to consider asking different questions of employees and managers.

So, if you could only ask three questions of your employees, what would they be? Which questions would produce the company intelligence you really need?

Examples:

• Is the employee at risk of leaving the business?

• Is the employee a performer?

• Does the employee put in discretionary effort?


These questions, for example, would help to illustrate what employees think about the business, where potential problems may exist, and what managers’ perceptions of staff are.

This insight can then be compared to current retention and attrition statistics, and all potential parallels identified. It can also be used as a form of predictive analytics in order to aid future resource and contingency planning.

What are predictive analytics?

The term ‘predictive analytics’ is defined as a branch of data mining used to project future probabilities and trends. In an era of significant change, this is an incredibly important principle for HR teams to understand, as it can help to mitigate risk.

Example:

By identifying the different types of employees in existing roles, as well as their traits and behaviours, HR professionals can then - using intelligent algorithms - identify who they should be looking for when recruiting for upcoming vacancies.

Within this scenario, and by also looking at who has exited the business and why, predictive analytics becomes a mechanism to ensure the right people are targeted. It is even possible to understand who is likely to be successful in their role, who is adaptable to organisational change, and who will progress during turbulent times.

This is just one example which illustrates how HR can move from being a passive, reactive resource, to a proactive, strategic force. MI (Management Information) will become more important than ever in 2017, so HR teams need to ensure they have a tool in place in order to help them capture, interpret and act upon it.


HR Hacks - Part 1 Recap

In November 2015, Cascade’s CEO Oliver Shaw spoke to delegates at the CIPD Annual Conference and Exhibition on the topic of ‘Using big data to conduct better workforce planning.’

Oliver asked the audience: ‘Who can confidently say how many people they have in work today?’ A large percentage within the room were unsure, and this wasn’t a surprise. In fact, 75% of HR professionals typically don’t know the answer to that question on any given working day.

However, when tackling the subject of managing organisational change, this question remains extremely relevant, even 12 months on.

To effectively change, CEOs and their teams need to:

• Set their vision

• Ensure they have the necessary resources to pursue their vision

• Monitor progress towards that vision.

So, if HR teams cannot quantify how many people they have in work at any point in time, how can they say how many people they will need in the organisation in twelve months’ time?

Unfortunately, there is now so much focus on (admittedly important) processes and efficiencies, that people can sometimes get forgotten about. But, however clichéd it sounds, an organisation is nothing without its employees. If a company is behind on its headcount at the start of the year, it is unlikely to catch up as the year progresses.

Tech savvy teams: think beyond the obvious

Whilst the right HR technology can help to steer an organisation through momentous periods of people-related change, businesses need to think beyond just their preferred software solution. Cascade, for example, has worked hard to develop a comprehensive system that acts as an ‘engagement engine’ for organisations throughout the UK, but that doesn’t mean we don’t advocate the use of other tech-based tools too.

For example, having devised a carefully considered pay and benefits strategy using a core HR and payroll solution, HR teams may decide to also utilise wider apps such as Givvit. This easy-to-use application, for instance, enables managers to give spontaneous recognition to their employees – gestures that remind people how valued they are when so much business change is going on around them.

HR teams should therefore remain abreast of innovations within the engagement space, ensuring that they make best use of the low-cost tech opportunities at their fingertips.


Remembering the needs of different stakeholders

With so much happening during periods of significant change, it is easy to understand how some stakeholders can get forgotten about. It should not be forgotten that change affects everyone within an organisation.

That’s why the aforementioned Cascade-sponsored webinar also asked: ‘Are you engaging with stakeholders to share concerns around change and shape the future together?’ Only 31.5% of those surveyed said that yes, they are, but, encouragingly, a mere 9.5% said they aren’t. It was interesting to learn, however, that 59.1% believe they’re only ‘partly engaging’ with stakeholders.

It’s therefore crucial to remember the needs and expectations of all vested parties as change unfolds. For example:

• Employees will seek information and reassurance, even if there are seemingly no updates to share – change is certainly not an instance where ‘no news is good news’. If employees are kept in the dark, there’s a danger they’ll assume the worst case scenario. So, if nothing has happened since the last update, be honest and tell them that, before reminding them of the next steps.

• Senior management teams are likely to want to know the ‘state of the nation’, i.e. how many people are in work today, is the headcount on target, are trends emerging from exit interviews, what is the current cost of recruitment, and are specific departments or line managers experiencing productivity or engagement issues? The list of queries will go on and on. If HR can find the answers to these questions, at a time when everyone is experiencing uncertainty and looking to the future, the internal profile of the department will rocket.

• Line managers are often left to their own devices during periods of change, but they too require guidance and support, perhaps now more than ever. Workflows can therefore signpost what they should be doing, when, how and why, as the change takes place. Whether it’s handling redundancies, undertaking succession planning, or overseeing personal development and reskilling programmes, the creation of policies and plans will ensure that the right people do the right thing at the right time.

• Investors are typically ‘all about the numbers’, so how can HR give them the metrics they require when change is afoot? Now is the perfect time for human capital to be measured and accounted for on the balance sheet, so that the true value of an organisation’s greatest asset can be comprehended. This is not only an entire topic in itself, but is also a useful starting point in order to carry out the following calculation (or a variation of it):

(Company turnover £ ÷ No. of employees) x experience = value of one team member


Conclusion

Managing change is such a complex and variable topic that it isn’t possible to devise a crib sheet that helps tackle it in a best practice manner. There is no single checklist, and no right or wrong way to go about tackling change.

However, the use of best-fit HR technology can certainly make life easier. It can relieve HR professionals of administrative burdens that they no longer have the time to tackle. It can also act as an anchor which ensures a level of focus in the face of vast uncertainty, and it can provide the ability to model and predict what might be possible with an intuitive use of data, that HR teams sometimes do not even realise that they hold.

There has never been a more important time for software to take the strain of the pressures that change can create.

To discuss this topic in more detail or to book a demonstration of Cascade HR products,

contact us on 0113 230 8602 or email [email protected].

a best-practice guide hr hacks: part 2 using technology ...€¦ · using technology effectively to...

Documents