These are some of the negative perceptions we’ve discovered during our conversations with HR professionals: 

• “HR generally doesn’t know the inner workings of the business outside of their department.”
• “HR creates more obstacles- instead of removing them.”
• “HR is a cost rather than a factor that can create added business value and profit.”

These perceptions are, however, wrong for the most part. Any successful HR department will know the inner workings of the business they operate in, remove obstacles, be at the forefront of the office cult and will create added value. The prerequisite is, however, that HR knows the different trends and acts on them. 

We’ve listed some of the HR trends we’ve noticed the last couple of months: 

Lots of companies have figured out that a remote work policy is the way to go. Remote work management is therefore leaning towards a shift  from ‘Work from Home to” “Work from Anywhere”.

We’ve also noticed a major emphasis on using data and Artificial Intelligence such as chatbots to improve routine HR efficiency. The goal? Keeping HR fast and lean through automating repetitive tasks.

Customer experience is something that all organizations are aware of. But lately, employee experience is becoming more and more important. Making employees feel useful and able to grow improves your office culture, breeds brand ambassadors and ultimately generates more customers.

Since organizations want to be more flexible, there is a definite need for the skilling and re-skilling of potential as well as existing employees in all areas of work. 

These are just a few of the trends in the everchanging HR landscape. It’s key to have an HR department that is agile and lean. That way you can adapt easily to new evolutions and unforeseen changes. We have some other tips for you to prepare your HR for the future. 

Ready to discover what berlin consulting can do for you? Get your digital HR audit now!

We’ve condensed the current HR trends in some insightful tips that will help you prepare for the future: 

• Get accustomed to technology and innovation (HR chatbots, data analytics, specialized HR software);
• Focus on overall organizational success by aligning HR goals with the company’s vision and mission;
• Prepare for the changing work methods and styles of a new and diverse workforce;
• Focus on training, personal development, re-skilling and upskilling;
• Automate processes as much as possible;
• Make intelligent use of HR data and turn it into valuable insights that have a positive impact on the bottom line.

We’ve created our own proven EDDI© methodology. This allows us to audit your organization on several HR domains. From first assessment to impactful decisions, berlin consulting can help you to transform your HR.

Want to know more about what we do? Get in touch with us! 

People analytics allows you to better understand your most valuable asset – people – boosting your performance and improving the bottom line of your organization. People analytics, or even analytics in general, is considered the holy grail in many management disciplines. But it’s not something that you implement overnight. Even if you want to. On the one hand it requires you to ask the right questions. You need to think carefully about the business problem you want to solve, or you will end up reporting at random. On the other hand you need resources with the right skills. Traditional HR professionals typically don’t have the digital or analytical mindset needed to perform data analytics.  

So what happens if you’re doing it all wrong? Then things might go awry. People analytics has the power to create tremendous business value, but it has also the power of doing the exact opposite. Data will talk if you ask the right questions and if you’re willing to listen. If not, and used in the wrong way, you might end up demeriting your business instead. Don’t go wasting time, resources and money. Think once before you act, think twice before you start analyzing, and think three times before you present the data. 

Think once before you act, think twice before you start analyzing, and think three times before you present the data.

HR is the land of milk and honey when it comes to data but unfortunately barely a thing is done with it. The use is often limited to creating operational reports which is great for tracking checks and balances but it won’t tell you anything new. It will just confirm what you already knew, missing out on the opportunity to create valuable insights. 

In order to transcend operational reporting you should start by asking questions in line with the business goals. It seems fluffy but it is not. Imagine that your organization plans on opening new locations in the nearby future. The shortlisted locations are often chosen without consulting HR. However, People analytics can provide valuable insights as you can scout the locations without even visiting them. Demographic information is widely available online, use it and start asking the right questions. 

• Do they have the right work profiles in the area? 
• How do we expect people to travel to work? Is there public transportation available nearby? 
• What are the labour costs?
• What makes an employer attractive in that region?

By asking the right questions, the data might show that the shortlisted locations are not a match with the projected business goals or even with the corporate values / culture. These kinds of analysis bring invaluable insights to the big table, making HR a true strategic business partner. 

People analytics is definitely not limited to the business strategy. Don’t use People analytics to just please management and the business but also use it to step up the game in HR. Because you can’t manage what you don’t measure. Rise above the traditional key HR metrics and ask yourself if your current reporting creates valuable insights. If yes, kudos and keep going. Otherwise, ditch the metric and start over. Find the metrics that matter. You’re probably reporting in meticulous detail on absences just like every other organization worldwide. But what is the added value if absences are not even an issue in your organization? None. If it is not an issue, then don’t be bothered tracking it. On the other hand, have you ever calculated the replacement cost of a leaver? You will probably lose sleep over it if you do! But imagine the business value of these kinds of metrics. Limited in Europe by GDPR, but you can even use predictive analytics to flag potential leavers and take action to avoid the replacement cost.

We are all familiar with the key HR metrics. But what business value do they deliver? None. Don’t report on key HR metrics because everyone is doing it. The true business value of People analytics lies in the fact that you never stop asking questions and discover correlations that nobody ought possible. Ask questions. The odder the better. Have you ever asked yourself if overtime triggers more illness? Or if employees are less absent if they have premium coffee at the office? Imagine the business value if you can prove these kinds of correlations. This allows you to take actions that actually impact the bottom line and make the employee experience better.

HR is known for taking decisions based on ‘soft’ arguments, relying on years of expertise and gut feeling rather than data. The habit of soft decision making will be difficult to break for many HR professionals. But there is no point of ‘doing’ People analytics and in the end not using the valuable insights it delivers. The good thing about data is that it never lies, and carefully chosen metrics will tell you what to do next. This sounds cold to the average HR professional, missing the human factor. But it’s nothing more than a necessary paradigm shift in HR – data driven decision making based on facts rather than deciding on ‘what feels right’. Is your HR department ready to take the jump?

Never stop asking questions means that you will fail big from time to time. Especially if you go nuts with the questions. And remember, the odder the better. You will (and must) mess up at least 10 times before you have a winner,  a Golden Metric. A Golden Metric is that one metric that proves an unexpected correlation, gives you invaluable business insights and allows you to create impact by taking data driven decisions and actions. Never stop until you have the Golden Metric and then repeat.

You don’t need full time resources or a US military budget to implement People analytics. Have a look at your People analytics maturity level, and define your roadmap in line with the business strategy. Make sure you ask the right questions and solve the right business problems. By implementing fit-for-purpose metrics and tools, and with the necessary training, your operational HR team will be able to start using analytics in their day-to-day work. Improving the overall quality of your HR operations.

Many organizations want to know why astronomical budgets are wasted on so many failed projects, while trying to understand the mind-blowing project failure rates. HR projects are no different and have a tendency to fail. From simple projects like documenting business processes to more complex projects with a huge operational impact like the implementation of a new HRIS or time registration system. One might say that failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently. Think again. There have been tons of books written, studies done, surveys completed and lessons learned debriefs held on how to manage projects. And based on LinkedIn profiles half of the world’s working population holds project management skills (believe us: they don’t). But projects still fail big time. Ever wondered why?

HR projects are not a walk in the park. They are different and they are done differently. HR projects might even be one of the most difficult projects to manage (probably with the exception of Nasa projects like building a sustainable human colony on Mars).

• Your project team must have relevant HR expertise or your project is lost before it even begins. And this most definitely applies to the project manager as well. No free pass here. And you need at least one Googler (keep reading!)
• HR projects always involve many stakeholders. And yes, they all want their say in the matter. Large and complex projects involve almost every department in your organization. If that is not the case, then you’re doing it wrong and they will come after you at some point. Avoid that. Or run as fast as you can.
• HR data is used in many different non-HR processes: IT user provisioning, access control, finance, etc. etc. Every change will have ripple effects downstream that need to be managed. The domino effect.
• The impact is often huge. With a direct impact on your employees and an indirect impact on your business and customers. Unhappy employees are unhappy customers.

There are of course many reasons why projects fail. The traditional reasons (or better said: excuses) are scope, budget and time. Often given by theory-driven, spreadsheet-based project managers. We have seen our share of mismanaged projects going South. And they all had one thing in common: missing some serious ownership at all levels.

Ownership is crucial for the success of every project, and this at every stage of the project. Without ownership of the team, business or operations, the project is doomed to fail.

Great projects are not done by one person. They are done by a team of people. The right people. The team defines the success and the quality of the project. Make sure that the project team is selected wisely.

Doing projects is a challenge to some, but a death sentence to many others. It requires a totally different skill set. Don’t expect all your employees to be eager to take on additional projects or even have the ability to take on project responsibilities. Organizations often make the mistake of assigning the employee with the most experience and knowledge on the subject to the project. Although their input might be valuable, they might not be the ideal project member. If they don’t have the necessary skill set, or just don’t want to take on the extra work, don’t force them to because this will end in a lack of ownership and involvement which will impact the project for the worse. Yes, you need subject matter experts on almost every project, but having a Googler is even better. As said before, many subject matter experts don’t have the time or eagerness to take on additional projects meaning that useful knowledge is unavailable to the project team. So instead of trying to convince them to commit to your project and lack ownership, find someone who is eager to be involved, is an assertive go getter and has excellent Google skills. They might not have all the knowledge you need but nowadays you can Google just about everything. And going old school is also an option: picking up the phone, sending an email or dropping by someone’s desk. It still works in 2020. Crazy right?

At the same time, don’t make the mistake to underestimate the value of internal employees that are eager to take on projects. These are the subject matter experts you need! They know the organization. They are experienced. These kinds of resources are truly priceless for every project. However, projects always come on top of the day-to-day work so statistically speaking your employees can’t have the time to take on projects (unless you’re very bad at workforce planning). Make sure they get the time to focus on the project responsibilities. If necessary reduce the day-to-day work pressure by taking on temporary operational support. Because no time means no ownership.

The ownership within the business has two layers, both equally important: leadership and (middle and lower) management. Leadership needs to sponsor the project, while providing the team with the resources they need to achieve a smashing success. Management is mainly responsible for the buy-in from the business, crucial for the success of the go-live and normal operations afterwards.

Leadership support is crucial from ideation over implementation to normal operations. If they don’t back you, you’re doomed. Leadership is often enthusiastic by the idea and happy to sponsor the project until things tend to go below the Mason Dixon line. Doing projects is not a playdate with unicorns and every project flirts with the Mason Dixon line at some point. But a strong leadership team continues to support the project, and more importantly continues to believe in the capabilities of the project team and will back you up during these difficult times. When your leadership is weak and feels the heat below their feet, they might do a 180° on the project to save their own career. We are not talking about pulling the plug because the project is as dead as a doornail, but rather about putting individual needs above the collective needs of the project (and organization). The latter means trouble. And big time.

Leadership is a walking billboard for your project and crucial to get the message across the organization. In support of the leadership, management is also key to the success of the project and especially if they are the end user. They will translate the business needs and why of the project to their team, creating a much needed support base by getting them excited about the project, upcoming rollout and operational use later on. Kick off change management as soon as possible to get everyone in the organization aligned. Open communication is key and works both ways so listening might get you valuable input.

When the A team takes off, the operational team comes in. A project can be delivered successfully, and still fail big time afterwards. This is due to the lack of ownership of the operational team.

So what went wrong? More than often projects are done without even involving the operational team. By the end of the project a handover is scheduled, dropping everything in their lap and off you go. Problem one, they don’t have any feeling with the project as they were not involved. So they might not understand why they need to use new tools or business processes while nothing is wrong with the old ones. They are clearly missing out on the why of the project. Problem two, missing ownership might kill your project faster than you can count to ten. People don’t like change. If you don’t give them the right context, tools and support, they will go back to the old way of working in no time. This is why projects might still fail after a successful go live.

The operational team does not need to be part of the project team to be involved or kept in the loop. It is often even a good idea to not include them in the project team, but always make sure you involve them by:

• Organizing workshops to gather relevant input. They know way more than you. All you have to do is ask, listen and take notes.
• Include them in regular status meetings (not more than once a week!). They take part in the meeting and get an update on steroids.

Believe us. This is not a waste of time!

Project management is obviously our firepower. We love doing projects, big and small, and are very good at it. It’s like our brains are wired like that. Over the years we have done (and saved) a lot of projects, even those that were already below the Mason Dixon line before it was dropped in our lap. This gave us the chance and expertise to develop our own project methodology EASD. Is this the answer to the huge failure rates in project management? Hell no but it is a good start! EASD is an agile methodology that allows you to effectively manage your projects while optimizing the ownership from stakeholders. It stimulates involvement and increases the quality of the output drastically, while reducing time spent on the project.

Disclosure: We know that the mind-blowing project failure rates are not limited to HR. Projects fail elsewhere too. And big time. But we’re in the HR business, so we limited our point of view to HR. 

/fəʊm/

noun INFORMAL

1. the anxiety that you will go unnoticed or become invisible
2. the fear that you will become irrelevant or lose power
3. the fear that your efforts and performance are overlooked

2020 will be forever the year that launched the digital workplace into the stratosphere as the new normal, moving us all from the boardroom to the spare room. Nonetheless, digitalization of the workplace creates endless opportunities for every organization and employee worldwide by finally building a long-overdue corporate culture that allows and stimulates flexibility, is focused on output rather than input and is completely based on trust. But every silver lining has a cloud. Meet #FOME.

#FOMO, the fear of missing out is nothing new. We all know it or have it. But our new reality, where we mainly work from home, created the derivative #FOME – the fear of missing exposure. The anxiety that your performance will go unnoticed or that you are suspected of not being productive (enough) while working remote. The fear that the social cohesion in your team will disintegrate, making you lose your power or influence, and thus making you irrelevant in the (digital) workplace. Basically you are panicking about your visibility.

The last several weeks have been a struggle and learning curve for us all. We did our best to adjust, even setting up an office in the laundry room if we had to. We all hoped this situation would be temporary but after a while reality kicked in making us realize that this is our new normal. The upside. We are no longer stuck in traffic and we can work in our PJs. The downside. Adjusted office hours with meetings from 8AM until 6PM, even skipping lunch time, being the new cool. Making your head spin and mailbox explode by the end of the day while you realise you haven’t done anything productive except that you now know the color of your colleague’s kitchen wall – Tranquil Dawn by Levis (available in stores now). And yet you accept every meeting invite as if your life depended on it while you know that many of those meetings can be replaced by a simple email or a quick chat message. So why aren’t you declining those meetings that aren’t adding value to your work and induce stress as you can’t focus on what matters – getting the job done? Because you’re anxious that when you decline meetings, you will lose visibility in the digital workplace.

Some organizations already were olympic gold in scheduling meetings for every decision or discussion. And the new normal initiated even more meetings pushing regular office hours to its limits. Why? The fear of missing exposure.

• How am I going to show I’m working enough / long / more hours? Meetings.
• How can I show my performance to my manager? Meetings.
• How do I stay top of mind? Meetings.
• How do I stay visible or relevant? Meetings.
• How do I keep information flowing? Meetings.
• How can I track the performance of my team? More meetings.

These are of course irrational, but totally human, reactions to an unprecedented situation. Many things changed overnight and catalyzed the feeling we are no longer in control of our work environment and career. We have the feeling that we are no longer on top of things, that we are not included as much or are missing out on things. This is driven by no longer being able to have small talk at the coffee machine, have lunch together or drop by your manager’s office for a quick chat. Adapting to a new situation is a process and we are still adapting and finding our way in the new normal.

Digitalization of the workplace introduces new technologies and a new way of working reconfiguring the visibility of your work in relation to your organization, colleagues and superiors. Digitalization doesn’t by definition mean less visibility of your work. New technologies might even allow you to make your work more visible to a broader corporate audience. However, #FOME is triggered by a feeling, the fear of not being visible enough. And whether that is true or not, is irrelevant to the fear and anxiety that an employee might have. Who knows what and who knows who remains crucial for your internal career and visibility. As a consequence the employee might change work behaviour for the worse in hope to successfully manage the impression of others by focusing on “the doing” instead of “the work”. In other words, showing off input instead of focusing on the output.

The digital workplace requires a new way of working. The old rules won’t work here. We have to discover new ways of how we can have a constructive conversation and discuss performance. How we can have regular check ins without overflowing agendas or the need to schedule daily huddles at 8AM. How we can manage our team effectively to make sure work gets done by focusing on output rather than input. And how we can make sure that information keeps flowing without flooding the mailbox or agenda. The digital workplace requires employees to better manage their personal work time and schedule, while making them feel comfortable about their visibility and at the same time trying to avoid the trap to make the digital workplace one big meeting.

New rules have to be written and since this is an unprecedented situation, there are no guidelines to use. Resetting the terms of how we work requires HR to step up as a strategic business partner.

#FOME is a reality and a normal reaction to the digital workplace. But it doesn’t have to be a bad thing. It is another opportunity for organizations to strengthen their corporate culture, redesign the way of working, and reinvent themselves. Make use of the collective intelligence that your organization has to offer. Involve your employees and it will create tremendous business value.

We are all curious about what life will look like after the pandemic but we can’t deny the impact of Covid-19 on the economy. Recession is a fact. But recessions come in many shapes and forms. Since economists are warning for the worst recession since the Great Depression, as a consequence a lot of companies are preparing for a U shaped recession which is long with a slow return to growth. We don’t agree. We believe it will be limited to a V shaped recession where the economic recovery is much faster after a sharp but brief period of economic decline.

Who are we to not agree with world renowned economists? We are part of the optimistic millennial generation that doesn’t (want to) believe that things will come that far. The previous generations are traditionally more conversative. If things go south, they stop spending and cut back on their lifestyle. But luckily for us they are retiring (or their way of thinking is anyways). The MTV generation, the millennials and the digital natives have one thing in common: #yolo. They were raised with MTV and social media. They are creative, innovative, entrepreneurial and digital. Getting the most and best out of life is their reason for existence. They are travelling the world, combining multiple passions, interests and jobs. They don’t limit themselves, they are slashies. They want it all and nothing can stop them. This #yolo mindset fueled the transformation over the last decade where we moved from a service economy to an experience economy. It’s no longer about products but about the quality of life and value adding experiences. This makes the economy pick up growth faster than ever before. And If Covid-19 proved us something, then it’s definitely that people and businesses are resilient, adaptive and innovative.

Some traditional businesses or even business models will go under if they weren’t able to reinvent themselves in order to survive. But the silver lining is that businesses are adapting to new forms of operating. Yes, life after Covid-19 will be totally different. But will it be for the worse? Probably not. Covid-19 breaks with the old and is the catalyst for new ways of working and doing business. Even local bars are delivering cocktails to your doorstep. All you need to do is mix the ingredients.

When new ways of working emerge, HR is at the forefront of it to facilitate the change but often fails to do so. What are the future opportunities for HR?

Employer branding will remain a hot topic. The experience economy and growing influence of millennials in the workplace drive the consumerization of HR. Employees are more demanding than ever. More than just a job, they want a great on-the-job experience. The employee experience your organisation provides has a direct impact on your organization’s success. And now more than ever, you will need your employees to be your brand ambassador. Make sure they represent the brand the right way. A strong employee experience drives a strong customer experience.

Start your transformation wise and assess your current situation. Make sure you invest where most business value is created to avoid costly mistakes.