The International HR Forum - Annual Do Number Two - 14-15 May 2014

The second IHRF Annual Do took place over 14 and 15 May 2014.

Still a “Do”, as the proceedings are far too informal and unstructured for a conference, and not quite trendy enough to be an unconference…

And what a “Do” it was. Standing room only at times, and a great mix of external gurus sharing their expertise, IHRF members with innovative and interesting case studies, and of course Peter Cheese, he of CIPD leadership fame.

Of course, as this is very much an amateur event there was the odd hiccup along the way, but not too many people noticed them. Apart from the first one, which happened right from the off, when the first presentation disappeared in to the ether. It was enough to drive me to drink, and I probably would have had a few, were it not for the fact that first up was Dr. Adam Winstock, one of the foremost experts on addiction medicine. A slightly unusual opening to an HR event, but an eye-opening one as he took us through the often overlooked (or even unknown) perils of drug and alcohol use and its impact in the work environment. It was quite mind-boggling to hear how many people actually do partake in the two hours before they start the working day…

We then experienced a “slight crunching of the gears” as we moved from addictions to trends in the world of European Works Councils, where Philip Sack explained where the next developments were likely to be. Company-funded expert advice for the EWCs, training, etc. along a battleground where the EC and other authorities are looking to extend the roles of EWCs as opposed to the corporate world where keeping the scope quite limited and narrow is the order of the day. It was interesting to hear about the mixed experiences amongst the attendees with EWCs. A necessary and largely pointless evil v. a force for good? Discuss…

Next up was Nigel Baldwin, IHRF stalwart and award winning HR dude for the harmonization project within Thales that he and fellow IHRF member Joe Ales presented last year. This time around Nigel took us through Project Advance, which was an initiative within Thales to identify the role of HR, its core processes, the coverage model, and ultimately the skills of the entire UK HR team. The drivers were to reduce costs, raise service quality, increase capabilities within HR, improve the “customer experience” and make team members proud to be part of a fit-for-use HR team. The CIPD’s competency framework for HR business partners was used as the benchmark.

Nick South, from Boston Consulting Group, then took us through some research conducted with the EAPM which quantified the differences between companies with high capabilities in managing people, and those with low capabilities. A number of practices across 10 broad HR categories were identified, the key learnings were to ensure alignment between company strategy and HR activity, to break down silos in favour of effective cross functional and regional collaboration, and a continuous monitoring of HR effectiveness through the use of effective data.

Following an employment law update from DLA’s Adam Hartley, Geoff Boot took to the floor to lead an interactive session on the use of HR metrics. It was interesting to see the proportion of the room where there was not a clear linkage between any HR strategy and the metrics in use, along with the range of metrics used, and the scope for what was notionally the same metric to have different meanings.

Possibly the hottest topic over the two days was the growing trend in the world of performance management to move away from an annual fixed-in-time, documented, ratings-based performance review process to something that is ratings-free with no format and no set timing. Rod Ireland took us through the journey they have been through in parts of Intel, whilst also drawing on Adobe’s similar experiences. Whilst the desired goal of a more “natural”, engaging, ongoing, coaching-based approach to performance management was widely accepted, the steps required to get there along with the implications of de-coupling processes traditionally dependent on a performance rating were seen as potential issues to overcome.

The lure of alcohol and nibbles proved too difficult to resist, so Day One came to an end…

Day Two got off to an inauspicious start with a couple of hangovers, a presenter pulling out at short notice, and 9:30am passing with no sign of our star guest, Peter Cheese, CEO of the CIPD! Good old South West Trains… Fortunately Peter wasn’t too late, and what followed was a 90 minutes of insight in to Peter’s thoughts on the role of HR, skills and capabilities within the function, and the role of the CIPD. Refer to my separate blog on this for a more detailed overview.

David Bickerton then took us through the approach to employee engagement and the use of pulse surveys at BP, which has undergone a shift following the Deepwater Horizon disaster. His key tips were to ensure that any surveys are quick to complete, that they have visible and actionable outcomes, that there is sufficient focus not just on the employee experience but also manager responsibility for championing engagement, and that the results and hard-wired in to the business planning process. He also had a cautionary tale around the need to ensure the data security of any third party web based survey tools used…

It was then the turn of Marc Weedon to take to the stage (well, the floor at the front of the meeting room) to outline the approach that Ciena has taken to crafting out a 3 year people plan. What were the key points? The promotion of global coherence and consistency whilst recognizing the need for local adaptation. Ensuring the plan is aligned to business strategy and values. Making sure that the plan defines, resources and prioritizes key activities and has at its heart the ability to attract, develop and engage top talent. And being clear about the critical enablers – OD, change management, internal comms and HR capabilities in this particular case.

Following a further employment law update, Mike Rugg-Gunn from Norman Broadbent’s Leadership Consulting practice led an interactive session on the role of psychometric assessments in the workplace. The room split in to various camps to work through why they were believers, agnostic or non-believers, and then these thoughts were shared amongst the wider group. The main learning was to ensure that any tool used was appropriate for the task at hand, and that it should be a complementary process to back up and support decision making rather than being the main thing that drives decisions.

So that’s it. The curtain closed on our second annual event. It seems to have made a successful transition from a “let’s see how it goes” kind of experiment to what looks like being a permanent fixture in the IHRF calendar.

A special thanks to all of those who contributed, to all of those who turned up and interacted, to DLA for hosting the event and laying on the booze and bites, and finally to Rob Cook who helped me with the planning and logistics…

See you next year J

An Audience With Peter Cheese - CEO of the CIPD

OK, I couldn’t resist it, and I am sure Peter has heard it oooooh at least a thousand times before, but at the start of our annual two day International HR Forum event I did say that we would be hearing from the HR profession’s “Big Cheese”.

A lame gag, it is clear that Michael McIntyre won't be quaking in his comedy boots. I don't have his floppy hair anyway. 

But it seemed appropriate for the informality and occasional irreverence that was a hallmark of the two days.

I’ll post a separate blog about that event as a whole over the weekend, in between encouraging my son to do slightly more than the square root of bugger all in preparation for his GCSEs next week.

In the meantime though, I thought that our time with Peter merited more than a few lines buried within an overall summary of the annual event, so here’s a more detailed review of the 90 minutes he spent with us.

So what were the key themes discussed?

Policy:

• Never been a better time to be in HR! Business is now looking beyond rules and regulations in to the areas of ethics, behaviour values, and culture.
• Leadership is the #1 concern of the CEO. Not just the exec team, but leadership at all levels, and the need for strong people management.
• There is increasing recognition that HR is a key business enabler, so Peter is getting increasingly involved at a policy level with discussions with government, trades organisations, other professional institutions, etc.
• Needs to be a more effective tripartite discussion between government, education and business.

HR capabilities:

• Must talk the language of the business. The language of business is the language of numbers. Get comfortable with talking numbers.
• Take advantage of the fact that most of the value of the company is in its people.
• P&L looks at past performance, the wake of a boat. It doesn’t predict future performance, where the boat is going.
• Robust people analytics required. Not just the usual suspects. How do you measure leadership effectiveness, culture change, etc?
• Help businesses find practical ways of understanding and reporting on the value of their people. Check this out: http://www.cipd.co.uk/hr-resources/valuing-your-talent.aspx
• Adopt a common language. Just what does “headcount” mean?
• Recognize what diversity is actually about. Not just age, race and sex. It also covers aspiration, education, opportunity, flexibility, etc.
• Need to deal with a paradigm shift in the world of work. No longer 9 to 5, office based, full time etc. Need to recognize flexibility, remote working, the contingent workforce, etc.
• Engagement… Most companies recognize it is a “good thing”, but most don’t have an engagement strategy. HR has a role to play in bridging that gap
• Needs to be an alignment of purpose, autonomy (giving space for people to do what they can do) and mastery (to provide opportunities for growth and development). These are the key drivers of engagement.
• Performance is not just “what I do” but “how I do it”. Increased focus on behaviours, culture and values.
• Performance management is changing to reflect the ongoing nature of what it is. Once-a-year, paper-based, risk-managing, ratings-based processes are no longer fit for use with today’s modern workforce.
• Don’t lose sight of the basics. What is human behaviour at work? How do we learn? What motivates us?
• Can we really keep referring to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, using Kubler-Ross’s bereavement curve as a tool for change, etc. etc. when they were created decades ago in a completely different environment?
• Managing change is all about trust and opportunity, not bereavement. The line has a key role to play in instilling trust and taking people with them.
• The “permafrost of middle management”… A key pinch point in any organization, the intersection of strategic and operational, yet too often the blocker. How do we unlock this layer, make them more open to change, add that missing something from top to middle?
• Don’t be afraid to engage in “reverse mentoring”, so you know what the latest trends and developments are amongst the new generation of workers.

The CIPD:     

• Playing catch-up with the likes of ACA, CIMA, etc.
• Will be more demanding of the qualifications, professional standards and capabilities needed.
• There will be a more differentiated membership offer.
• Looking at overhauling the branch network to improve consistency, better reflect regional business agendas and raise the quality of events.
• Reviewing digital strategy so that it will be easier to access the wealth of content on the CIPD site. “Content, Community, Connection”.

International:

• Some 10% of the CIPD’s 135,000 members are based overseas.
• Second largest HR institute, after SHRM (US).
• Recognition that more can be done to help those UK members who have complex international roles.
• Building a collaborative network amongst other country-based HR professional institutes. Particularly in Asia and the Middle East. Starting to focus on some parts of Europe.
• The key will be not to over-extend.

So what was the reaction of the assembled masses? Uniformly positive, actually. Here’s a summary:

• Good to see that he had a clear vision for the role of HR, and the CIPD.
• Great to see such passion and conviction behind the insights.
• If Peter achieves only a fraction of what he articulated whilst in charge of the CIPD then the profession will still have taken great strides forward.
• Very engaged.
• Clearly interested in the international piece.
• No notes, not a powerpoint slide in sight, a very impressive performance.

So many thanks to Peter for taking time out to attend the event. With all due respect to all the other contributors this was in fairness probably the highlight of our two days, and for that I will forgive him for giving me kittens by being a few, fashionable, minutes late :)