There's a great haircut over on Ian McKenzie's site 🙂
Taskforce members ignore own advice on people data – Part 1
There are more rumblings about the Accounting for People (AfP) taskforce. In an article entitled "Taskforce members ignore own advice on people data" we learn that;
...close inspection of their [BP, Compass Group and ITV] most recent annual reports reveals that some only pay lip service to their staff in their main documentation, with as little as two paragraphs on "employment" in the case of ITV. BP has just one paragraph on "human potential" in its report, although there is quantitative data on staff employee issues. Compass includes only five paragraphs on staff in its 105-page annual report.
I happen to believe that AfP is a hard internal sale and as a consequence of this, the take up is slow or non-existent. On a positive note however, one might conclude that some reporting is better than none and the first step is always the hardest.
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Costs and Quality?
I was reading this note on the UK-HRD mailing list and couldn't help be tickled by the author 🙂
Nothing personal - this happens every couple of days - someone puts up a posting asking for an instrument, exercise, whatever, which will presumably have some kind of effect on people's careers and life chances and then adds the coda that it should preferably be free or low-cost.
I'm reminded of John Glenn, the astronaut, who when asked about his feelings on being punted into outer space said that he couldn't help but think that all the millions of components were purchased from the lowest bidder.
Love,
V.
Innovation Strategy and People
The ability to connect innovation, or the lack of it, directly to people within an organisation is key to ensuring that such innovation is delivered. While lots of people (Dave Pollard and Mark Madsen for example) are looking at disruptive innovation, we haven't seen much that attempts to link the innovation process directly to individuals.
We've been working closely with Allan Engelhardt at Cybaea and have been exploring the impacts of innovation, collaboration and related themes. We've recently published a joint article called "Actions for Enterprise Collaboration". Feel free to read the text online, or register and download it as a pdf. As a summary, I've added some extracts from the article below.
The business literature has recently been focusing on managing the direction of innovation, especially through the works of Clayton Christensen. However, if innovation is a car, then Mr. Christensen provides the GPS satellite navigation system to tell you how to steer to where you want to go, but gives little insight into how to start the engine.
Companies need to innovate relentlessly to even stand still in an increasingly global and competitive economy. No longer is it sufficient to deliver incremental improvements at a leisurely pace. Instead disruptive innovations of the type that fundamentally alters markets and business processes must be sought out and delivered regularly and predictably. Disruptive innovation must become a core business process.
However, substantial innovation happens in the organizational white space between departments and functional units. The activities in these spaces are almost per definition unmeasured and unmanaged, and therefore not repeatable.
[In order to link individuals, organizational white space and the innovation process directly] 4G first looks at the quality and specific dynamics of relationships and culture within the group. In particular, it is possible to not only see how existing relationships manifest themselves but also to predict the outcome of new relationships should roles and responsibilities change, or people’s work bring them into contact with new people. 4G also offers insights into different cultures and again, these can be modelled, predicted, and referenced against optimal conditions [for innovation].
Posted in Leadership, Psychology, Strategy, Teams Leave a comment
Human capital dismissed under OFR guidelines
The ongoing debate about encouraging companies to report on their human capital management practices seems to have been dealt another blow. This article outlines some of the recent developments.
The draft Reporting Standard for operating and financial reviews (OFRs) currently being consulted upon by the Accounting Standards Board (ASB) are missing the opportunity to improve UK productivity and competitiveness according to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).
Angela Baron, CIPD Organisation and Resourcing Adviser commented: "The ASB have failed to reflect the Secretary of State's intention to embed in law the concept of Enlightened Shareholder Value. We are disappointed that the issue of employees and their relevance to long-term performance has been allowed to slip so far down the list of factors that are deemed relevant to operational and financial reporting.
We have a wide range of research that supports our conclusion that significant business gains are to be made if organisations collect, analyse and act on all information available and relevant to their long term performance. This means considering the contribution and value of human capital in a thorough and systematic way, and in equal measure with other forms of capital."
There can be no doubt that in principle, such reporting and information is fundamentally good. However, the question that needs to be asked and ultimatley answered is why are the supporters of these moves struggling to deliver?
In my mind, there are many reasons for these problems but perhaps the most important is the inability to create a best practice approach or something that can be modelled and replicated which equally delivers internal value for the HR sponsors and other senior decision makers. I continue to look for something to represent this, but with little success to date.
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HR Blogs
Regina Miller over in the US makes a call for more HR blogs. Here here!
Over in London, we're trying to raise the UK flag! There's a great list of HR blogs over here, but does anyone else know of any UK HR blogs?
Posted in General 4 Comments
Value Added HR!
There is some more positive feedback on the Commercial Added Value HR Association. Jerry Hayter at Xecutive Search further endorses the position adopted by Neil Griffin in his letter (see the bottom of the page).
It is very sad to see the CIPD doesn’t seem to engage with the most senior, and most influential people in the profession. It’s even sadder to see that the headlines in the personnel media are still full of features bemoaning that HR isn’t aligned to business goals.
I remember reading something very similar in the personnel press when I joined the profession 15 years ago. We should ask ourselves: why hasn’t the profession yet made enough impact on business under the sole stewardship of the CIPD after so long?
Not to make the CIPD a target, but I think these sentiments are very well made and echo many comments we hear in conversations with our own clients.
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Thank you to Bill Ives
Just a quick post to thank Bill Ives for his kind announcement and review of our new blog "Value Added HR" 🙂
Bill writes;
Their blog is meant to provide a place for more informal discussions around people in the workplace and understanding the nature of relationships in the workplace. It is great to see more businesses adding a blog to their web site and beginning these informal conversations with whoever wants to participate. They appear to be off to a good start.
Thank you Bill - I've added you to our blogroll!
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Social Software and Social People
There is lots of talk about Social Software at the moment. While this ranges from sites like Ecademy and Linkedin through to the growth of blogs and knowledge management software, what is clear is that the people aspect can't be left behind.
While there is no substitute for people in this process, The Work Foundation have emphasised this in their own report "You Don't Know Me, but... Social Capital & Social Software".
Successfully marshalling human and technological resources in tandem is the key organisational and social challenge of our times. Organisations have been mystified as to why ICTs have failed to deliver promised productivity benefits, only to find that they have paid insufficient attention to the social infrastructure in which these new tools are embedded.
This report has already been picked up by Centrality and I think these ideas add weight to the people agenda within organisations which should really been seen on a par with processes and systems, if not a priority!
Posted in Intangibles, Teams, Technology 1 Comment
The Strategic Perceptions of HR
A survey by LogicaCMG showed an interesting distinction between the perception that HR have of their value and strategic contribution to the business and how this differs from that of board members. Writing in Personnel Today, Mike Madgwick states;
In fact, a recent study commissioned by LogicaCMG, taking in views from a cross section of the UK's top 500 companies, points to a distinct difference of opinion between HR directors (HRDs) and board-level decision-makers. While three-quarters of HRDs feel they currently make a strategic contribution to business, less than half of decision-makers agree. Indeed, 62 per cent of these decision-makers believe that there is room for improvement in this very area, citing strategic business contribution skills as a key future requirement for HR.
No doubt the reasons for these differences are far from simple, however, I think the point is one that can't be missed, especially given the desires from the board to invest more in their HR functions.
...with 60 per cent of (board level) decision-makers expressing the desire to take on the mantel of HR at board level and 48 per cent agreeing they need to take greater responsibility - and invest more - in people development.
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