Talent, technology and transformation

Transcription

1 IBM Australia White paper Human Resources Talent, technology and transformation Report from the Australian CHRO Roundtable 2014

2 2 Talent, technology and transformation: Report from the Australian CHRO Roundtable 2014 Executive summary In October 2014, more than a dozen Australian chief human resource officers (CHROs) and senior HR executives from some of Australia s leading companies participated in IBM s CHRO Roundtable in Melbourne. In this paper, we summarise the conversations that drew into sharp relief the most salient issues for CHROs: using cloud and analytics to generate business and workforce insights using social and mobile capabilities to improve employee engagement outsourcing key functions. The roundtable provided the CHROs with a forum to talk openly about the challenges and opportunities they face in their managerial roles as well as more widely across their businesses. The key findings that emerged were: 1. CHROs capabilities are frequently underplayed or undervalued, denying them a strategic role in their organisations decision making. 2. IBM is transforming its HR processes by outsourcing some functions and using social media to boost employee engagement and generate new insights. 3. CHROs often lack the information and insights to create business value; however, cloud-based systems allow them to develop analytics that will help their organisations acquire and manage talent. 4. Mobile platforms and social media play a significant role in helping organisations engage and communicate with their employees more effectively and, in turn, gain a competitive advantage by providing a superior customer experience. 5. When addressing their challenges, CHROs should consider external partnerships for strategic initiatives as well as finding new ways to collaborate with other key business functions such as marketing, finance and procurement. CHROs: at the customer coalface IBM s 2013 C-Suite Study: The Customer-Activated Enterprise identified that companies globally should focus on their customers, who expect and demand more immediate and more personalised communication from the organisations they interact with. At the Melbourne roundtable, David Matthews, General Manager IBM Global Process Services, provided an overview of the study s key findings and insights. In particular, he emphasised how they related to HR, as social, media and digital technologies democratise the relationship between customers and organisations, this is also leading to demands on organisations for greater transparency with the external world. He noted that an engaged workforce can provide a strong connection between the two. This means organisations need to engage, nurture and develop their staff. Training and motivating employees to better engage with customers can provide real-world insights into how to create a more customer-centric organisation. Matthews conceded HR had evolved considerably over the past two decades, from providing operational functions (hiring and firing, payroll, leave and benefits) to playing a critical role in managing and retaining talent.

3 Human Resources 3 But he impressed on the gathering that, according to the study, a majority of CEOs still believe HR is falling short in its strategic thinking: in being proactive, engaging, collaborating and sharing knowledge that would help their organisations understand and harness the power of their workforces. The study found that only 35 per cent of CEOs believed HR contributed significantly in this regard, compared to 72 per cent of CFOs. Matthews argued that it was crucial not only to get the best from employees but also to enable them to better serve customers, and so help drive business results. Three characteristics of a successful future organisation: Opening up to customer influence Pioneering digital/physical innovation Crafting engaging customer experiences Source: New expectations for a new era: CHRO insights from the Global C-Suite Study Leading by example: IBM s HR evolution IBM kicked off the roundtable discussion by using itself as an example. Kathleen McCudden, IBM s HR Director, outlined how her department is moving towards advanced workplace analytics namely cognitive analytics as a way to bridge the gap between big data and practical decision-making. Not only is her team using social and mobile tools to boost collaboration (for example, with IBM s Jam events, which are essentially a form of mass online brainstorming), but IBM is outsourcing many of its transactional responsibilities, such as payroll runs, employee expenses processing and relocating staff. Further, IBM is creating more specialised strategic roles within HR to better manage, engage and retain staff. These changes are also resonating with business managers. Just as IBM has changed its HR operations, it also has the expertise and systems to help others take advantage of its outsourcing capabilities and software solutions.

4 4 Talent, technology and transformation: Report from the Australian CHRO Roundtable 2014 Business builders: using cloud and analytics to generate insights Attendees generally believed that HR managers exercised more influence at the decision-making table than they were given credit for, but also felt their role was often undervalued. We are the person they [C-Suite executives] call at 6pm when something has gone to crap, wanting a sounding board, getting into perspective the actions they needed to take, said one CHRO, summing up the meeting s mood. We handle that crisis aversion, crisis management, putting out spot fires here, there and everywhere things that never get to the CEO because you handled it. At the same time, the group firmly believed that HR managers needed to think and operate more strategically if they were to have greater influence on decision-making, and to confirm their place at the right hand of CEOs. We ll see a shift when we re more proactive, not when we re reactive, and when we take a longer-term approach, said one organisational development head of a large chemical company. Another senior HR executive gained broad agreement from the group when she said HR departments were not commercial enough not because they weren t capable, but because they lacked data to produce the insights that could drive businesscritical decision making. Cumbersome legacy systems and disparate methods of collecting workforce data were singled out as particularly problematic, as they were unable to provide the analysis and insights required. Why don t you give me a database I can interrogate? asked the head of a statutory corporation. We re up against systems that are unfriendly. Another common theme was big data s tendency to overpromise and underdeliver. The cost of enterprise-grade systems was identified as a key contributing factor. The Rolls-Royce turns into the Skoda pretty quickly, was one wry comment. A manager in the health industry noted that HR was especially adept at relationship building but never had access to data that either made an impact or had some influence in the decision-making process. Her comments received support from the group. Finance has the best systems known to man and the moment an organisation wants to make a decision, everyone turns to the CFO. He runs the numbers and, boom, away they go. HR spends its time trawling through data so the perception is we don t have that same impact. This opened up discussion on how HR could take a more proactive stance when it came to adopting technology and accessing relevant analytical data. We wait and wait and wait and, two or three years later, we are no further forward. Instead of opting for something agile, we configure as we go, said one attendee.

5 Human Resources 5 Another participant saw the challenge in building HR s analytic capability. If we could add our own personal analytics, data fields, sensibilities as HR practitioners if this could be done at the push of a button, it would present a huge opportunity for us to add significant value. Social and mobile: getting the best from your team In response to a comment that telcos are using analytics to predict when customers are about to change mobile phone providers, an attendee asked why similar information couldn t be used to determine when an employee may be about to leave an employer. The conversation thus turned to the changing face of analytics. Traditionally, insights were based on historical data reporting. Predictive analytics go a step further, employing historical information to make forecasts, such as the kind of new employees and skills an organisation might require. Cognitive analytics offering the ability to anticipate when valued employees may be about to leave, or were stressed and might break down was recognised as the next crucial advance. By using such intelligence, particularly when combined with the people skills and intuition of a capable HR team, positive action could be taken to stop employees from deciding to leave, or to engage staff in a way that improved their working conditions. Such steps harness data to directly add value to the business. We ll see a shift when we re more proactive, not when we re reactive, and when we take a longer-term approach. Discussion then moved to the connection between people s working and personal lives, which sparked great interest and debate from the CHROs present. Young people, in particular, want and will choose to work for companies that offer the best, digitally savvy social environment, noted one CHRO. Interestingly, this provoked a note of dissent. The more we give employees and make it easier, the more they expect, said one participant. This brought an equally swift response: While they expect more, they tend to give more back. A CHRO representing a statutory authority lent further support: It s the discretionary effort that keeps us going in terms of creativity, energy, commitment and willingness of staff to give their time. I don t mind whether they expect more, because if I have more demanding people, I am challenged to respond in ways that will work for them. The table was reminded that employee engagement which research shows improves business performance was crucial to earning employees discretionary effort. One participant noted: I don t think the answer is set in specific HR platforms anymore. It s in that free, readily available, unstructured data like LinkedIn, Facebook and Glassdoor. We should be figuring out ways to aggregate that data to pinpoint weaknesses in an organisation s engagement strategy.

6 6 Talent, technology and transformation: Report from the Australian CHRO Roundtable 2014 Social and mobile platforms also offer organisations ways to develop talent by individually tailoring learning programs. Training sessions accessed via Google, web forums and YouTube, for example, might be more instructive for certain younger employees than the more traditional managed learning services and classroom-based tuition. Mobile was singled out as offering a particular set of opportunities, including mobile rostering, instant access to information about the organisation, self-service from the mobile handset and accessing leave entitlements. In this vein, IBM s partnership with Apple was also broached. The roundtable group was optimistic that it might result in apps that deliver the same level of innovation and productivity to the enterprise space as Apple has to the personal space. A CHRO in the health industry mentioned a recently developed app that had enabled her organisation to match staff availability with its staffing needs. It was the best, most simple thing I ve seen in my life, she said. Providing staff with mobile digital tools, especially those that could be used in the cloud to provide real-time information and analytics was discussed as a way to give employees greater autonomy, as well as to offer better customer service. Outsourcing: the best way to get the right tools There was consensus at the table that HR stood to gain significantly from the ongoing push towards cloud computing, as well as the growing influence and significance of advanced analytics, mobile and social media. But what is HR doing to drive the agenda, to embrace these advances in analytical, mobile and social technologies? How can CHROs use these means to bridge an organisation s employees and customers? One service provider spoke about the organisation s struggle to create a necessary congruence between its HR and marketing teams to attract more customers and drive the business. I love the thought of that cohesive talent brand but there are so many pieces that have to hang together to make it cohesive. The Global C-Suite Study highlighted the importance of collaborating with external partners to help HR add value and deliver new capabilities to organisations making strategic partnerships to boost staff engagement, building productivity and instituting cultural change, all with a view to delivering greater value to customers.

7 Human Resources 7 Through the course of the CHRO event, outsourcing was touched on in various conversations and debates at the table. It was established that outsourcing was more often conducted at a transactional level, rather than strategically or with a longterm view. However, many attendees were eager to learn more. IBM has focused on building smarter workforces in recent years through partnership and collaboration. It is now an area of expertise built up through working with client organisations of all sizes. At one end of the spectrum, IBM Global Process Services (GPS), the company s business outsourcing arm, partners with an enterprise to handle some or all HR requirements. For instance, IBM GPS may help a global bank create a learning model and governance program to support its business objectives, strategic planning and global integration. IBM also helps organisations to adopt a more strategic approach to managing and acquiring talent. IBM s Smarter Workforce solutions offer a range of cloud-based analytic and collaborative software tools designed to spot talent, engage employees and initiate change. For instance an engagement survey for a small entertainment group could help it attract and retain people who best fit the company s culture and provide an assessment solution for general managers. HR: getting a better seat at the table In their closing remarks, IBM s David Matthews and Kathleen McCudden stressed that CHROs will play a crucial role in marrying workforce and customers in the future through talent development and employee engagement. They pointed to evidence that those companies that integrated social media, external partners and analytics with HR systems were more successful in motivating their employees to better interact with customers. This was helping these businesses to financially outperform their competitors. They added that businesses shouldn t approach this as a single monumental task, but rather as a process that can be divided into a series of manageable, specifically targeted initiatives. CHROs who see and grasp the opportunities to not only improve the performance of their workforce but of the business as a whole, are the ones who will finally be recognised and valued for the work they do and take their rightful place where many believe they should be already at the decision-making table, alongside other C-suite executives, Matthews concluded. Top five workforce related challenges: Talent development Employee engagement and commitment Talent retention Workforce productivity Sourcing and recruiting Source: New expectations for a new era: CHRO insights from the Global C-Suite Study

8 For more Information: Phone: Web: Copyright IBM Australia Limited ABN Copyright IBM Corporation All Rights Reserved. IBM Australia 55 Coonara Avenue West Pennant Hills NSW 2125 Produced in Australia. December 2014 IBM, the IBM logo, ibm.com and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both. Other company, product and services marks may be trademarks or services marks of others. A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at Copyright and trademark information at: ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml GL_16386