HR BYTES

Beyond the Recession

noreply@blogger.com (Amit Avasthi) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 10:51:22 PDT

It might be a bit early to say so, but a lot of indicators are promising an end to the deeply feared phenomenon of global recession. A phenomenon that shut the doors of many companies and also ended a lot of promising careers. The impact has been profound more so because we are all a part of "connected" world order

Throughout this period, academicians and practioners have been giving different advices on how to tide the crisis. But with the end of the turmoil near in sight its time to look back, reflect, change and quickly adapt to the new world.
Easier said than done, its time to really look at some of below mentioned things and then reflect on the change it can bring.

1. Damage assessment - When recession took over, organizations resorted to a number of measures, including cost cutting, workforce reduction and in some cases restructuring. In some cases, this has led to brand erosion, loss of trust and lower employee morale. Its time to assess the extent of damage and quickly ensure that it does not cause further damage.

2. Need assessment - Organizations and in particular HR needs to quickly assess what it has lost in the time passed, is it competitive advantage, its brand value or its employees ? How does it ensure that it maintains the edge in the competitive landscape.

3. Talent Assessment - Its time to assess the current available talent. See what could be threat factors and how organizations can ensure they are able to retain their workforce when things are better in the job market.

To ensure that organizations are able to do a great job they might like to look at some of the following

A. Check Engagement levels in the organization

B. Quick assessment of the pulse of HR processes, so as to better deal with gaps and also strengthen the process framework.

C. Reassess values / culture framework to see if that needs to undergo a change.

D. Look at redifing Employer brand.

E. Create a more networked organization, with more focus on collaborations.

F. Create teams to leverage cross skills

G. Last but not the least focus on developing strong leadership in the organization.This leadership would help your organization reach the next level.

While this may look prescreptive in nature, not all would apply to all organizations. Its time to chose what you need to do bring about the vibrancy of your organization back, who knows it may be not all of this but a recreational get together. Only time would tell how well organizations shrug the baggage of past and look beyond recession. The sooner the better !!!

Back to Blogging soon

noreply@blogger.com (Amit Avasthi) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 00:26:21 PDT

Folks, finally some good news i am all set to start blogging. As I had shared in my previous post, i was awaiting clearance from my employer to start blogging again.
With the clearance now in place, am ready to blog again
I would soon be up with my first post. Look forward to your continuous patronage and thanks for the innumerable mails asking me to continue blogging, It really adds on to the motivation. :)

Delay in Blogging

noreply@blogger.com (Amit Avasthi) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 13:12:04 PDT

I have been getting mails inquiring if I would not be blogging anymore ? I must apologise to the readers of this blog for not being able to post new blog post. As most of you are aware I have just joined my new job, so i am still in the process of getting more clarity around the policy to ensure that i can blog smoothly.
Till then I would request you all to bear with me. :-)

Thanks

Change round the corner

noreply@blogger.com (Amit Avasthi) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 08:29:25 PDT

To begin with, I would like to apologize for the long duration where I could not send posts, I got a lot of emails from people asking about the reason, to share with you it was due to a change which was keeping me occupied. In my blog,I have talked about so many trends and changes that organization faces in today's environment.
Today I would be talking about a change of different kind, I am making a change in my career from HR Technology to HR consulting. While this change was something i had been planning (also looking forward to) for sometime now, it has happened now. This would be great news for the patrons of the blog as you can expect a lot more new and interesting insights into HR issues,ofcourse not to miss on how technology continues to influence HR as a function.

Would look forward to your continued patronage and ofcourse the silence is now broken, so you would see some posts in the coming days.
Stay tuned !!!
There is a lot changing in the blog apart from the content....

Cedar Crestone HR System Survey 2009-2010 Available Now

noreply@blogger.com (Amit Avasthi) — Thu, 21 May 2009 12:17:13 PDT

I have been a big fan of Cedar Crestone survey for its sheer ability to combine HR and Technology so well.
Last year results were amazing, those who missed it can have a look at the results here

This year the survey is back with a promise to extend the reach, and thereby the benefits for you. It is just the perfect example of what goes into the preparation of a well defined result (courtesy Lexy Martin, the undisputed Survey Queen, who over the years has juggled with numbers and data and given really meaningful results).

Some Facts about the current survey

Why Participate?
The survey results will help you justify new technologies, choose the best deployment option, decide which ones to do next, and provide invaluable metrics for benchmarking aspects such as expenditures and staffing. As a survey respondent, you will receive results in advance of our public release at the HR Technology conference on October 1, 2009.

Who Should Participate?
The survey collects responses from HR and IT management with knowledge of the HR technologies in use and planned, as well as those with an overview of key outsourcing and hosting decisions. CedarCrestone invites representatives from organizations in all industries with over 500 employees to participate.They also make it easy for multiple people in your organization to respond if no one person can answer all sections.

Continuing and New Research Areas For 2009
This year’s survey covers questions about the following:

* Adoption of talent management, business intelligence, service delivery, and workforce management applications as well as SOA and Web 2.0 innovations
* Deployment options and related expenditures (on premise, software-as-a-service, hosting, business process outsourcing, etc.)
* Comprehensive metrics such as employee/HR staff ratios, administrative costs per employee, links between technology adoption and financial performance, and many others

Please Participate in this Industry-leading Research
The estimated time to complete the survey is 30 minutes and this year’s survey is shorter than in the past. Data collection begins today and will be available through June 22, 2009. The survey instrument is available at www.CedarCrestone.com/hrssv65.

Enabling HR Transformation in current times through Effective Systems usage

noreply@blogger.com (Amit Avasthi) — Thu, 14 May 2009 23:48:53 PDT

In my last post I talked about how HR can transform the way it looks at the current economic environment from a Talent perspective. In this post, I would talk about how Talent transformation can be enabled by effective usage of systems, even in current times.

Let's analyze how the three panes contribute to Effective Talent Management,

People: People form the core of any talent management strategy. Traditionally, when an organization's performance is good, its employees know what to expect from HR and the company. They are not bound to cost cutting pressures and this allows companies to define strategies easily. However in uncertain times, the management consults the HR function to recommend and devise strategies that will help the company bring down costs. Sometimes while resorting to such measures, organizations have resorted to across the board retrenchments or cost cutting. This not only affects the morale of employees, it also leads to lowering of engagement level, thereby lowering productivity.
When times were good, organizations had all the resources to invest in keeping their processes in tune with the demands of business, however with pressures on resources, organizations are witnessing a shift from a process driven approach to a random approach, where everything that leads to " savings " is fine. Again this would well serve the cause in short term, but over long term is bound to cause more damage to organizations.
Last but not the least, Technology. HR and Technology have been synonymous with each other not so long back. CIO's used to pride themselves in introducing Talent automation driven projects, but that was then, now HR automation again faces the brunt of cost pressures, with the focus more on business critical projects.
Having said this, I would like to look at the impact of looking at these three panes in isolation.
1. The measures may serve short term means, but what about long term goals? How do organizations retain their brand image? What do they do with Talent strategy, we all know its difficult to get talent in good times, why not make efforts now?
2. Remember, technology is changing continuously at a pace faster than ever, if you don't invest in your employees, you would be left behind
3. HR automation is the best answer to help organizations effectively manage the transition of their talent in these times.

Before I look at what organizations can do, let me give some examples of where an organization faces problems due to above factors in these times. You are the CHRO of the organization which is impacted with cost pressures, so what do you do? Do you reduce workforce? Do you redeploy them? Do you shut down a few projects? Do you ask your employees to go on compulsory leave? While as an organization, you would have done one or more of the following already, more often than not the choice is backed by information rather than data! This is what makes a difference, if you have perfect information on the talent utilization, you would be able to resort to more meaningful measures.

So now, how organizations can really invest in better utilization of their resources in current times.

Automate Service Delivery – Studies have proved that automating service delivery (HR Transactions) can result in both cost savings as well as better utilization of HR workforce.
Identify and Segment Talent – Better identification of what constitutes " critical talent " within your workforce and focus on that to bring the best result in current times. These employees would have a higher productivity and better utilization. To enable this, organizations must have a complete visibility of the talent profiles (skills, competencies) of their workforce and what their business requires.
Engage the workforce – While most organizations have cut on their training costs, this is perhaps the best time to invest in the development of your employees. With an ambiguity surrounding the work environment, not only trainings can be reassuring to employees, it also means they are better prepared to face the challenges of tomorrow. Automating training, and providing web based learning could be best for organizations looking to engage the workforce.
Develop Future leadership – Organizations should continue to invest in leadership development. This involves identification of the critical talent, enabling them to take on higher or challenging assignment and making the work environment conducive to their growth. This would mean investing in measures to ensure that critical talent is taken care of well.

Finally, we should ask one questions, do we see the current times as a challenge or opportunity? If its opportunity then HR technology can be your biggest friends in these times and investing in HR Automation could be the best thing to do !!

Value your talent

noreply@blogger.com (Amit Avasthi) — Mon, 11 May 2009 11:55:27 PDT

Recently, I presented on the above topic at a Seminar. I was absolutely thrilled by the kind of questions I got in response to this topic, there were HR managers who wanted to know how to go about Cost cutting, there were others who wanted to know whom to layoff, yet there were others who shared their own experiences and what they had done.
I would like to share this from two perspective in two articles

a. From a HR perspective in this article

b. From a HR IT perspective in my next article.

While organizations today look at the best way to optimize costs and productivity, its imperative to take a more proactive approach than a reactive approach.
Here are some reasons why I think thats important.

1. Organizations are like brands, and HR needs to not just promote but protect this brand.

2. HR needs to take a long term perspective and keep in mind the " War for the right talent is always on"

3. HR needs to bring the best out of it employees at all times, and ensure that " Employees impact situations and not situations employees".

4. Right talent is difficult to procure and even more difficult to retain.

5. Value your talent now, because if you don't your competition would.

So all in all, it boils down to being proactive and not reactive. Its about taking a perspective on where to cut and what to keep. No doubt organizations would need to make some changes, but at what cost ? thats the answer they need to keep in mind.

Moving beyond Appraisals

noreply@blogger.com (Amit Avasthi) — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 00:08:07 PDT

Performance Appraisal and Management have been close to the heart of many HR professionals because this is what is suppose to align business and individual goals. Sadly, as many of us may not like to really accept it, its a process which has become more like a compulsory year end event.

Come year end and the routine task of “finishing" appraisals start in most of the organization. No matter how much HR would want it to be a disciplined exercise the fact remains that neither the assessor nor the assesses see value in the process. For an assessor its assigning a value to his / her perception of the individual's performance throughout the year and for assessees its a mechanism to achieve a rating which can lead to compensation changes. Some assesses also feel that ratings and the payouts are predetermined.

Strange but true, varied models, mechanisms have failed to change this.
Another Appraisal exercise undertaken by the organization is Potential Appraisal. Again this is an exercise which really does not result into something meaningful until the career pathing is done properly and rigourously followed.

This made me think is there something beyond Performance and Potential Appraisal organizations should look at ? may be yes, its time to introduce Human Performance Forecasting and Human Performance Reliability as the next concepts and practices. More thoughts on these areas to follow in my next blogs

Innovative Networking

noreply@blogger.com (Amit Avasthi) — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 19:54:28 PDT

Gautam blogged on a interesting subject here what he talks about is how recruiters are using status update to innovatively advertise vacancies.
He also points out to the fact that they are bypassing the LinkedIn Job facility which is a paid service.
I guess this is where the real challenge of networking lies. Networking has no boundaries and therefore it can present / manifest itself in various ways and the service providers would have to keep ways and means to provide services which are both free and paid to the target segments. How for example, identifying recruiters as a separate category, when the person enrolls ?
It's easier said than done, because this is what we see in a network sphere, when the power of web 2.0 spreads to organizations a similar situation would also take place there, and the question is are we ready to face it ???

HR Can't do much ??

noreply@blogger.com (Amit Avasthi) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 03:24:48 PDT

My thought on this article came from a very useful post I saw on John Ingham's blog here.
It quotes a number of studies and reports to show how Talent Management has shifted from the priorities of CEO. Its not a good news if you are a fan of HR fraternity like I am. I would like to take a different perspective on things.

Human Resource traditionally has been a function which has found difficult to quantify the value it adds to the business, as it deals with People. However enroute this journey of transformation from an administrative to a strategic talent driven function, there have been many changes in the role of HR , what it has been perceived as. HR from it side also tried to bring in concepts which could quantify or atleast give a sense of measurement to the whole thing.

However, with times changing and focus again on bringing down costs, HR has a tough time on hand. HR needs to proactively support business in such times, in not just diffusing crisis but also handling issues like Employee morale and productivity. It would also need to play a stronger role to align with business needs, and to do this HR would need to find people who really fit the culture, are able to scale up to business requirements, and for this to happen HR needs to know where the right people are, now this can't happen without information, and for that you need to invest in a system. Now who is talking about investments in such times?

Its a Paradox that HR would have to live with !!!
So does it mean HR would remain what it is ?
Not really, organizations that are thinking innovative are also able to bring about differential value in HR, more about it in my next blogs, stay tuned !!!

Social Vs Business Networking

noreply@blogger.com (Amit Avasthi) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 03:24:05 PDT

With the recent downturn, employees across world are becoming insecure about their jobs, they are thronging networking sites and in the process, little known sites too have become popular, while taking users of sites like LinkedIn to a little over 35 million. Even Facebook, which was vastly recognised for its social networking has crossed 175 Million users. A trend reflected here
The big difference from the adoption of such sites last year compared to this year is that a large number of people who would want to connect earlier so as to spread their profile around have transformed to a community who would want to connect to be "visible" and "employable" at the sametime.
An interesting fact here is the fact that the difference between Social and Business Networking seems to be essentially blurring,forcing more and more users to adopt to networking of some sorts. However as most Anthropoligist would argue, its impossible to maintain more than 150 social relationships, while for a person on LinkedIn, inactive relationships seems plausible.
This is where the essential line is drawn, People invading Facebook for career opportunities, need to understand that while Facebook could be a medium of community for certain organizations, it largely remains a Social Networking site. At the sametime, a site like LinkedIn or Xing, promotes Business Networking and keeps social networkers at bay.
As the article quotes
It’s a safe bet that if the economic downturn grinds on, we will witness further conflict between the nonrational instinct to connect socially and the rational calculation to build social capital for professional reasons. If so, it may put further strain on the notion of an online friend. We may find ourselves asking more frequently that age-old question, “What are friends for?”
In such a scenario, it remains to be seen how Facebook transforms to manage both Social and Business Networking. !!!

Upgrading your talent

noreply@blogger.com (Amit Avasthi) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 03:24:05 PDT

A McKinsey Quarterly article about how to manage talent in downturn here, points to an interesting case in point - Often the easiest is not the best.
The article talks about how organizations should carefully look at redesigning jobs and roles to effectively allow their employees not just to stay in the organization but also increase their productivity and improve their morale.
Its essential to see how most companies have reacted to the downturn, its not uncommon to see jobs being slashed in thousands. While its a knee jerk reaction, most would also point out, do they have an option ?
What happens to employees in these times, those who are shown the pink slip wonder whether its really their fault for what they are facing ? and those who escape it wonder, is that what they really are working so hard for ? Result - Loss of Morale, motivation, productivity and even Employer Brand.
Whats the difficult way out ? Look at redesigning jobs to get multiskilling and multitasking involved in these roles. What that would entail is a complete new set of jobs being designed keeping in mind the lean - mean organization thats required. That in turn could keep employees motivated and also help organization improve their brand image.
BUT a word of caution here, organizations need to carefully evaluate their needs to understand when is the best time for them to actually take such measures, also it requires HR to be in sync with business requirements.
So does System and processes have a role to play here ? A well aligned performance measurement system not only ensures that the right people are identified, but also creates a strong alignment to the organization goals, as also highlighted in the study.

Back to Blogging

noreply@blogger.com (Amit Avasthi) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 09:09:07 PST

I would like to place on record my sincere thanks and gratitude to the support that I got from everybody through messages, posts during this period. It certainly helped me get motivated enough to start blogging again.Though it did take a long time for me to start blogging again, I am glad I am back.
So here I am back to Blogging, and with a promise to bring you more and best of HR Bytes in the days to come.
Thanks again for all the support
Stay tuned for more !!!

A sad day

noreply@blogger.com (Amit Avasthi) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 03:23:33 PDT

11th Jan would remain etched in my memory forever. I lost my source of inspiration, and also an inspiration for this blog - my beloved mother. This blog would remain silent for sometime to come, that also explains my previous irregular blogging.
While I gather strength and courage to get back to blogging, I would request the patrons of this blog to bear with me.

HR lessons from Obama

noreply@blogger.com (Amit Avasthi) — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 22:16:07 PST

President Elect Barack Obama takes over the President of US in a few days from now. While there are huge expectations, there is also a story of how wonderfully the whole campaign was driven
I came across this article in Harvard Business Publishing,Senator Obama has shown how powerful management innovation can lead to a successful transformation.
Enjoy reading

Gartner stresses on Employer Branding and Social Networking

noreply@blogger.com (Amit Avasthi) — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 23:12:39 PST

Came across this press release from Gartner and I thought its a wonderful piece of information capturing the need for building employer brand and use of software and Social Networking tools to manage talent.
I would present my two takes on the article here.

To start with, we have all been witness to the global turmoil and how organizations have reacted to it (rather nervously) with slashing of workforce and costs. While there would have been a reason to do so, what organizations don't realise the impact this has had on their branding. Apart from bringing negative publicity, it also makes them " Brand of choice averse". Which definitely means that there would be all that extra work HR would need to do to build the credibility of brand.

As more and more organizations realise two things about the economic environment

1. Its dynamic and unstable

2. Its global, so impacts can happen from anywhere

This is also the time for Organizations to wake up to this new truth, Business is more uncertain than ever and the impact can never be determined easily till it hits. So Businesses have to learn to live with this turmoil and at the same time ensure that they are able to do so with the " Right people".
At the same time, organizations need to engage in using Social Networking tools more to engage in brand building, this is what the Gartner article also speaks about.

"The employer brand has recently become a significant component of human capital management (HCM) strategy," said Thomas Otter, research director at Gartner. "Many HR leaders have instigated employer branding projects. This isn't simply a fancy new name for recruitment advertising, but a broad strategy to leverage the intangible values of the organization to improve retention, employee satisfaction and performance."

The essence of using social networking tools to build employability brand is never questionable, however organizations need to understand the value these tools can also bring into alignment of their talent, some of which I talked about here

The coming years would determine how well organizations are able to cope with the new challenges that the economy brings onto them and how well they are actually able to leverage some of these challenges to take steps towards building the " Employer Brand" and all of this with more investments in software for managing talent processes !!

My Blog Story

noreply@blogger.com (Amit Avasthi) — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 23:11:53 PST

William Tincup just published my blog story here. Thanks William !!!

When I started, I never thought I would become a regular blogger.
I think blogging as a medium of expression of thoughts is very powerful and can leverage big ideas and explore thoughts of communities like never before.
I just hope to continue my humble efforts of sharing what I know and what I claim to know.

Would look forward to your continued support and feedback as always.

Google Connect on my blog

noreply@blogger.com (Amit Avasthi) — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 23:11:53 PST

I thought I would update you with some changes to my blog.
I have just joined Google connect, and its a useful tool to keep people connected.
You can also follow me on my blog and stay connected with all the updates
Comments and feedback are welcome on my blog Wall.
(All these tabs are available on my blog homepage)
Look forward to hearing from you.

Review your HR technology

noreply@blogger.com (Amit Avasthi) — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 23:11:53 PST

I am often being asked this question these days " What impact would the slowdown have on HR technology investments" and " what's the advice for HR on technology these days" ??
While I did write an article on impact of slowdown , but to be honest and fair that was just the beginning of what we are now witnessing as a global phenomenon. The impact has been so encompassing and profound that companies have put a freeze on IT investments, what was presumably what used to be called as business enablers have now taken backseat.
So these questions do make a lot of sense and working with organizations over years on their HRIT adoption made me think if there was a simple answer to it!!!
Unfortunately not, while it's true that organizations have widely put freeze or controls ( in some cases) on their IT expenditure. I think it's a golden opportunity to see what they can do with what they have at hand, so here follows some advice

1. For organizations using HRMS
Create a small team to review the current system, analyse gaps in implementation as well as understand what could have been done better. Organizations invest $$$ in automating systems. While the implementations happen in a time bound manner, so if there is a problem in the implementation, more often than not organizations wait for the next upgrade to sort these issues. These seriously hamper the utility of the system. Now is the time to identify and plug such holes.
Another aspect is usability, organizations need to look at how to make systems more usable internally and identify areas where the usability is low and then follow it up with some training. Use time to improve usability and show more value out of the investments.

2. For organizations that don't have an HRMS
While there might be a freeze on spending and your dream system may be a bit far , it's time to create better business justification which should be preceeded with a more dynamic need analysis of the system required and the preferred implementation model. This is also time to work through your evaluations and make it fool proof for your requirements.
Once you have done this and the business is ready to take off again, you would be better poised to identify the right system

3. For organizations that are investing in HRMS
These are the ones that believe that they need a system now! It's crucial for these organizations to realize that any short term investments would only hamper their businesses.
They need to look at investing in sound systems, because while you need a system and the mandate is to have a low cost one. It's always better to invest in phases than buy a low cost unstable solution.

What would be right would really depend on how well you are able to justify your needs but these are some advice that would surely help you beat the recession blues

Stay on top of your talent

noreply@blogger.com (Amit Avasthi) — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 23:11:53 PST

Nothing could have been worse than your CEO asking you to cut the flab !!!
These are tough times indeed and HR / Talent / People are the first to bear the brunt.
Isn't it ironical that the function that has been trying to prove that people investment is like investment in capital is asked to cut down headcounts in tough times.
This holds true more because organizations have little to do with the cost of human capital, and returns also include intangible. How does HR ensure in such times that it does not loose critical talent ?.
To ensure this, its imperative for HR to have a clear visibility on its talent. However this is easier said than done.
Organizations continue to function in Silos and live on island of systems making it near impossible to have a single view.
Thats the reason organizations should strive to have an integrated talent management system,to ensure they have one single view to the data, are able to combine various factors while taking decisions.
Organizations need to move up the value chain in terms of their system maturity and after achieving administrative excellence, they should look at acquiring Strategic HCM capabilities, which is where a talent management foundation supported by analytics can really help organizations identify the " RIGHT talent" to retain and develop in these times of crisis.

CedarCrestone HR Systems Survey Results

noreply@blogger.com (Amit Avasthi) — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 23:11:53 PST

I had blogged about the Cedar Crestone HR Survey here

CedarCrestone has released the results of its HR Systems survey, the FIRST one to be conducted in APAC. CedarCrestone has been doing this worldwide survey for the last 11 years, covering major trends and providing insights into the latest practices and adoption of HR technology.

The Coverage
The survey covered around 270 organizations APAC wide, and more than 800 organizations other than this worldwide. It covered organizations across industries and across sizes,and in that sense it was broadbased. Average employee size of the organizations surveyed varied from 500 to 40,000 +.

HR Solution Adoption
Adoption of Core HR remains high at 80 %, whereas Strategic HCM and Analytics are low on adoption at less than 30 %, again pointing to the need of having an integrated talent management strategy and solution.

Findings
SPENDING TIME AND BUDGET:
Top initiative where respondents are spending at least one day a week is activities around metrics and analytics
SERVICE DELIVERY VALUE:
Self service and move to service center enables organizations to serve more employees
TALENT MANAGEMENT MATTERS!
Organizations with technologies had higher financial growth on all measures than those without
BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE VALUE:
Organizations with technologies had higher sales per employee than those without
WEB 2.0 TECHNOLOGIES
WEB 2.0 is at the innovator/early adopter stage.

An interesting fact remains, this survey was done just before the recession wave tookover US and the world, so there may be some more conservatism if this same survey was to be conducted again. However, I don't feel it would have made the results significantly different.

What has become important for organizations across industries is Talent Management, and the investment related to it.As the survey goes on to prove how the investment in Talent Management has been associated with higher financial growth.
Another significant finding has been on Scope of Succession Planning, when Succession planning is limited to Top Management, Sales growth may be lower as compared to when Succession Planning is for other section of employees. This can be linked to the Employee engagement and the impact of it on the performance of the employee.
Another aspect covered is about the Web 2.0 technology adoption which remains low. This points to the large potential that lays unexploited still in the usage of HR technology.

For me - One single fact stands out - Investment on HR Technology can lead to significant benefits for the HR processes inturn impacting Sales growth positively. I think this makes for a continued case of investment into technology and use of it.
Lexy and her team have done an excellent job of putting together this survey and you can read more about it here

Just Another day

noreply@blogger.com (Amit Avasthi) — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 23:11:53 PST

What globalisation can do is amazing and the fallout of a recession is even more amazing. Jobs are getting wiped by scores. The other day I was speaking with a few of my friends who are thought leaders in the HR community and they seem to be unanimous that these are really tough times.Nobody seemed to have a real answer as to what's best but it does have a cultural connotation something that I would like to stress upon later in this article
With global institutions confirming the impact of recession, with financial institutions crumbling across the world and wealth being eroded, it's not good news for economies across the globe. Fears that the worst is yet to come has made businesses take to cost cutting measures. It's ironical that organizations that valued people as their most important assets are ready to let them go in times like these.

One of the things that we should keep in mind when going for layoffs in such times is the real need for such measures, talking specifically from an indian perspective, a classic example of how Jet Airways was forced to reverse its decision a day after it announced termination of services of 1900 of it's staff. While this became a political agenda ; what organizations need to understand that while such layoffs in some other countries can be taken careof by social security, unfortunately there is no such cover in India, leaving people without any financial cover to handle such situations.

What becomes important therefore is to have a paritcipatory view by appraising employees of the financial pressures and take measures towards cost optimization (not cutting). What organizations should remember is these are one of those times which would pass away sooner than later, however the way they handle this crisis would lead to their image as an employee friendly brand or otherwise.
And why not !!! Aren't people are our most important assets ?!

Smart Phones and Web 2.0 and Employees

noreply@blogger.com (Amit Avasthi) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 03:42:33 PDT

First the iPhone, and now gPhone. It seems that we are just about to enter a new world of mobile computing where enterprises would be surprised, in some cases overwhelmed by the way such technologies can impact them.

Technology is growing by leaps and bounds, and in this lies the opportunity to make the workplace even more connected.

Its time for organizations to realise that connectivity and convergence of different forms of technology is no more a myth but a reality. More so, such a convergence can permanently change the landscape of how we work.
Lets first understand whats different from the past

1. Mobiles are no more about calling, they have become smartphones with the ability to converge enterprise e-mail systems,high speed web browsing,location based services, GPS and more.

2. Its not just Gen Y that we should bother about, technology has a faster spread.

What it does to organizations ?

Internet access policies are redundant. I have seen many organizations not allowing use of blogs, professional networking sites, how can they stop it on a mobile device ?
Organizations would have to think of new ways to keep " ever connected " employee engaged and productive at work place. Thats not to say that these devices are all about play, they actually have the capability to bring Web 2.0 onto the palms of the user.
How ?Sample this ?
I have to go for a meeting to a co, where I dont have the contact details for the person. I also dont have any background to that person, worst still, I have not even checked the financial performance of the co.
The real convenience of web browsing !!!
Another aspect is the fast growing applications that are being offered on the web.
however its still not there where it can reach, for example a location based service which offers easy access to prospective candidates when a recruiter is searching without actually letting out personal information. The recruiter can contact the applicant once he finds the profile interesting through sms or chat.
For such an application to really work, the scale also has to be there however with the fast penetrating mobile device space, the scale is bound to go up and then the question would be
Have we as organizations adapted to the new world ?
Many may not have an answer in positive then.

Is Platform really the service ???

noreply@blogger.com (Amit Avasthi) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 03:42:57 PDT

I read an article on the Taleo blog here.
While this article talks about how Platform can integrate services in its offering, thus making it more flexible.In my view, the real world operates differently. While any amount of flexibility is welcome, can it be at the cost of integration ?

Its been a traditional debate between pure play SaaS vendors and other vendors,how the customer can chose whats best for him ?
While wisdom would say that each approach has a benefit associated with it, yet to simplify things its important to look at the reasons of automation and why organizations look for Systems in the first place.
Organizations are formed of people, systems, hierarchies and their networks. If we were to take a simplistic approach of making a process, it would consist of these four blocks as shown below

If you look carefully, an organization that needs to implement systems and processes needs to adapt technology.
Now how does that make a difference when it comes to different models ?
Very simply put from the above slide its clear that technology can help you define your compliance when people and processes interface, your connections when process and networks interface and so on and so forth.
From this it looks like that the very basic premise for investing in a system is to ensure that benefits of integration are available.
Thats where an ERP approach scores over a SaaS approach as it offers off the shelf integration for various purposes.
Still wondering which one would be the best for you ?

Human face to recruitment

noreply@blogger.com (Amit Avasthi) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 03:42:57 PDT

Remember the time you go for an interview from campus, you would have met a team from the recruiting organization that typically does a presentation sometimes more to tell about the company. Now contrast this with off campus or lateral recruitment, which might happen in a manner radically different.... With no human interface except the person who is probably interviewing you.
Yes, you can argue that there is no requirement for such an interface in most of the cases, but the person joining your organization may know a lot about his role but may have no clue on how well would he fit into the organization.
More and more organizations are therefore resorting to branding exercises becoming a part of recruitment drive at all levels. A trend of taking feedback on experience is the latest on this front. Organizations believe that feedback on the recruitment process and the face that recruitment organization shows is critical to the way the organizations perceive the brand.
What remains to be seen is how organizations would lend a balance between the technology at the same time ensuring the necessary human touch remains would be interesting moreso in times, when more and more recruiting would happen through other channels like social networks.
Interesting times ahead indeed !!!