2018 Global Human Capital Trends
2018 Global Human Capital Trends
2018 Global Human Capital Trends
2018
TRENDS
Featuring Leading Thought Leaders
Dave Ulrich
Cy Wakeman
With A Heartfelt Thanks
to These Contributing Thought Leaders
Dave Ulrich
Speaker, Author, Professor
Leadership, HR, and Organization Thought Leader
https://rbl.net
Cy Wakeman
NY Times Best Selling Author
Award-Winning International Keynote Speaker
Drama Researcher
http://www.RealityBasedLeadership.com
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INTRODUCTION
“Change is only hard for the unready.” Cy Wakeman
“It sure would be nice to have my schedule text to me so I can
see it on my smartphone,” an employee once told me. The
first thought that came to mind was, are you kidding? I
remember the day they went from posting a schedule on a
bulletin boards to making it available on a personal computer.
Now there is innovation. Don’t even get me started on how
time clocks have changed over the years!
But then a thought of truth came racing through my mind. The
question the employee asked relates to workplace experience.
The employee may find it necessary to have access to her
schedule through her smartphone so she could make
arrangements to pick up children from school or some other
personal life need.
We all know that change happens whether we are ready for it
or not. Like Cy Wakeman says,”change is only hard for the
unready.” In my HR executive experience in the healthcare
industry, I’ve seen change not only be a constant, but the rate
of change continues to accelerate.
Rapidly increasing innovations, technology, competitors, and
market forces continue to intensify. In addition to those drivers,
daunting skills shortages, ever-changing workplace 2018 Hot Trends
generational dynamics, workforce demands, regulatory • Connecting People and
changes and constant uncertainty also compound our reality. Business Strategy - Page
Like many of my HR and leadership colleagues, I can choose 4
to let change overcome me. Or I can embrace and leverage
change to achieve a higher good. • HR Technology Revolution
- Page 8
One essential step to learning how to be ready for change is to
stay up-to-date on hot trends as they will affect us. Join me in • Organizational Design -
exploring this 2018 edition of Hot HR Trends and read what Page 11
thought leaders, Cy Wakeman, Dave Ulrich, and Amy
Schabacker Dufrane, have to say as they guide us into the • The Experience for the
new year. Candidate and Employee
- Page 13
Warmly, • Performance Coaching
Tresha Moreland, SSBBP, SPHR, FACHE and Development - Page
Founder of HR C-Suite and HR Executive 14
!3
Key Strategic Driver
“Getting the right people on board, keeping them motivated and
creating cultures of high performance are not only HR priorities, HRCI
LINK
they are top strategic priorities for today’s business executives,”
said Amy Schabacker Dufrane, Ed.D, SPHR, CAE, the CEO of
HR Certification Institute® (HRCI®). “To stay competitive,
companies must increasingly rely on competent HR teams and
company-wide initiatives that redefine HR as a strategic driver of
people, innovation and business performance.”
CONNECTING
“HR has an
enormous
PEOPLE AND
opportunity to
create competitive
BUSINESS
advantages for
organizations by
STRATEGY
overhauling their
philosophies and
strategies to focus “I’d like a report broken out by each department, that shows the
on cutting the cost number of FTEs compared to the benchmark data. Let’s use
of drama and the 50th percentile. Overlay it with current volumes for each
department and include the variance both in volume and FTEs
compared to this time last year. I need to have this report no
later than this Monday. Also be prepared to present findings
NOE
from the report and answer any questions that may come up at
the next senior leader meeting. Oh, and I hope you have a
pleasant weekend.”
GOLI
Think this request was for a CFO or COO to answer? No, the
CEO expected this report from a CHRO. Finance, operations,
and sales analytics have taken center stage for many years.
Traditionally, C-Suite saw HR workforce analytics as elusive and
not concrete by which we base business decisions. However,
recent trends indicate that HR workforce analytics and practices
connected to business strategy are becoming a hot demand
item from HR.
!4
This trend takes us a step further than just tracking HR
metrics as a stand-alone measure. For example, instead of
Ditch the
Drama and
just measuring turnover and stating it only as how many
people left the organization, this hot trend demands more,
much more. The C-Suite not only wants to know how many
people have gone, but also how much it cost not just in Turn Excuses
antidotal or assumed dollars, but in real and measurable
dollars. Into Results
Plus business leaders of today may also want to know how My recent research reveals that rather
to predict turnover so that we can understand what to than driving performance and creating
invest not just dollars but also in time to get ahead of the efficiencies for the organization,
turnover rate. Even better, let’s calculate what the business conventional HR strategies and
impact of turnover is on productivity, customer retention, philosophies are actually fueling drama
in the workplace. The findings affirm
and revenue, while we are at it.
what we’ve observed in our 20+ years
Try these realities on for size: of experience doing Reality-Based work
in hundreds of organizations: when
A CEO wants to adopt a new service line in 3 to 5 years employees indulge in distracting drama,
to increase market share and gain a competitive learned helplessness, low accountability,
advantage. HR is and will be looked at to determine what lack of self-awareness, and ego-driven
kind of skills are needed, identify the skills gap and behavior it comes at a significant cost to
project the labor market pool to supply those skills. their organizations. In fact, my newest
study indicated that under currently
A company’s leaders want to adopt a more customer- prescribed HR philosophy and strategic
oriented culture but are having challenges moving the
best practices, up to three months per
needle on customer satisfaction surveys. HR may impact
year of each employee’s time –
this business result through implementing smarter hiring
potentially billions of dollars annually in
practices informed by HR analytics or find ways to
the U. S. alone – is wasted in drama.
eliminate waste in behavioral barriers to excellent
customer service.
It is time for a radically different
Labor expenses are through the roof, but leadership is approach to core HR philosophies such
having a hard time tracking or understanding the real as engagement, change management,
cause of the problem. Leveraging HR analytics can and accountability. In fact, it is time for
impact this issue by providing labor dashboards HR professionals to redefine HR and
indicating where there may be issues with overtime, pay leadership with science and research
practice leakages, and contract labor usage. and to teach leaders strategies and
tools that will actually work (and that
Savvy business and C-Suite leaders know the workforce they will actually use) in their modern
workplace.”
has a large-scale impact on the company, good or bad. If
efficiency leveraged the workforce can impact business
~ Cy Wakeman
growth/market share, customer retention, revenue
generation, competitive advantage, quality and ultimately
the bottom line performance.
!5
Key
Therefore, those same savvy C-Suite leaders are looking to their
HR leaders who can to compare HR data with business drivers
Statistics
and demonstrate and articulate meaningful business results.
Credit to a new survey of 300 5 Action Steps for HR Leaders: Now that we may have just sent
C-Suite executives, conducted other C-Suite members knocking on your door, email or text you,
by HRCI and Dow Jones
here are some actions steps that are worth considering adopting
and quickly!
Ulric
1. Change the “sets” (mindsets and skillsets): HR is
not just about the soft skills. The status quo is the status
isn’t. No longer will the status quo suffice. HR requires
h
solid analytic, critical thinking and business acumen to
influence business results effectively. The need for high
HR impact isn’t new. But the demand for it is growing in
intensity. Let us remove an excuse…do not allow the
Book
lack of a functional HRIS system stop you. There are
other ways to align HR with business results. This action
list will help you.
!6
2. Understand business objectives. Become
intimately aware of how the company’s leaders
plan to accomplish its purpose and mission. Look A New Leadership
at the top goals the organization pursues. These
may be prominently reported “at the table” and
Approach
presented to board members.
“The main issue is that most leadership
3. Develop an alignment strategy. Sit down philosophies are grounded in two completely
and sketch out a grid. Down the left side list all of faulty assumptions: “change is hard” and
the objectives you found the organization’s “engagement drives results.” When in reality,
leaders are pursuing. List out on the top all the change is only hard for the unready and
engagement without accountability will create
HR enablers that can influence that objective. For
entitlement, not results. Traditional beliefs have
example, if one of the goals is to increase
inspired expensive attempts to keep change
customer survey measures, write out all of the from being disruptive to employees. What these
things HR can do to impact that goal. Talent engagement programs actually do is create and
Acquisition, HR can put into place techniques reinforce feelings of victim-hood and leave
that ensure those hired can delight customers. employees unprepared to adapt to real changes
From a Total Rewards perspective, figure out all that are necessary for the health and profitability
the awards and recognition that rewards of their enterprises. Rather than driving
performance and creating efficiencies, these HR
customer-centric behaviors. From a performance
philosophies and programs fuel the emotional
management perspective, coaching can be put in
waste, entitlement, and drama that drags down
place to enforce customer centric standards. organizations.
4. Establish measures and articulate results.
Drama is emotional waste and waste is best
After you’ve developed the alignment strategy,
eliminated by the implementation of better
determine how to measure business impact
processes. Emotional waste, (i.e. drama) can be
success. Don’t hesitate to change your approach eliminated through great mental processes. I
if you find the techniques in place are not propose a radically different approach to HR and
impacting the overall objective. leadership. Changing the ways leaders think and
the strategies they use in their work is a serious
5. Continuously learn. Experiment. Continually
and critical economic issue. A leader’s role
learn how to influence business results. Will it be
shouldn’t be — cannot be — to motivate
changing the total rewards strategy? Or maybe it employees. That is a choice employees make.
is business partners who can use additional Instead, a leader helps others develop the great
resources? Perhaps it will be in how you hire mental processes they need to eliminate self-
future talent. Whatever the case, don’t let the imposed suffering and choose to be accountable
for driving results.”
grass grow under your feet. Keep moving on
~ Cy Wakeman
!7
HR’s Opportunity
“There are many HR-related concerns that keep executives up
at night — including a lack of candidates with the right skills and
experiences, succession planning, anticipating future work skill
needs and managing a multigenerational workforce,” Dufrane
said. “The opportunity is for HR to provide expertise and
strategic guidance in each of these areas.” ~ Amy Schabacker
Dufrane
Follow Amy and HRCI On Social Media
Disrupting
HR HR
TECHNOLOGY
REVOLUTION
“For HR (and other disciplines
like IT, marketing, finance, law),
disruption denotes new ways to
think about and solve problems.
HR disruption is about delivery Artificial Intelligence, Chatbots, Virtual Reality, Digital Privacy,
of HR services, but also about Smart Workplaces/internet of things! Oh my, there is a lot to
the logic behind that delivery. talk about in this space for HR. While the HR technology
Disruption is not a noun with an
revolution continues to rage on, the HR industry and
end state, but a verb where the
professionals need to decide to become either the disrupted or
process of evolving HR
continues. HR disruption is less the disruptors.
!8
Now before you begin to take out your “Leave the human in
Human Resources” arguments, you’ll want to know that the
technology doesn’t necessarily remove “humans” but instead
support a higher level of productivity and effectiveness needed
from humans.
Continuous
In a world that is on fire of concerns of bias and perceived
bias, AI technology is destined to take off further in the
Change
recruitment space. But AI will continue to influence other
components of HR, such as automating the mounds of email
questions, scheduling meetings, as well employee coaching.
HR delivering value. In my
teaching, I recognize the half-life A chatbot is a form of artificial intelligence but works as a
of knowledge, when 50% of my computer simulation typically hosted over the internet,
teaching materials are out of date
designed to provide a helpful conversation with humans. This
because of the pace of HR change.
For me, half life of my teaching technology can connect employees and job candidates to
materials is about every 2.5 to 3 answers quickly without having to wait for HR to open on
years when I need to have 50% Monday morning.
HRCS
Smart Workplaces/Internet of Things
Store
undoubtedly familiar with smartphones, smartwatches, wearable
technology, smart appliances, smart rooms by now.
Take me there!
!10
Data Privacy
Organization
through technology, we can’t end this chapter without a cautionary
note about the dark side. Data breaches appear to be at an all-time
high. Cyber hacking continues to be one of the top threats for
Matters organizations worldwide. Top tips for protecting your workforce and
securing your data include:
A final note, don’t let fear stop you from becoming the best you can
be. Leveraging technology and social media is a way to go. Just be
~ Dave Ulrich
ORGANIZATIONAL
HRCS DESIGN
Store
Organizational design persists as a top trend for HR. Organizational
design refers to the structure of work — networks, collaboration,
work arrangements, virtual teams, matrix and collaborative
approaches to organizational design. It may also involve spinning off
business units, mergers, and acquisitions, team design, as well as
deliberate culture shaping activities.
Organization Design Checklist
The driving need to be agile drives organizational design as a top
Need a quick start to evaluating trend and priority for HR. Teams have taken on a new level of
organizational design? energy in organizations today. Organizations have found benefits in
developing teams as opposed to singling out high performers and
Go to the HR C-Suite store for a
relying heavily on them.
checklist to jumpstart your effort!
Take me there!
!11
The War For Talent
“The war for talent has gone on too long for most companies. It
is time to win the war by shifting the focus from managing talent
to creating the right organization. Organization has four times
the impact of talent on business financial results and stakeholder
value. When leaders understand the importance of organization
and adapt the steps we suggest, organization becomes a form
of sustained competitiveness.” ~ Dave Ulrich
But organizational design goes beyond just changing a few job titles
and moving a box or a line on an organizational chart. Pay equity,
work, and technology alignment, core capabilities alignment,
information flow, governance, and leadership alignment all matter in
effective organization transitions. And…we haven’t even really
explored the organizational culture.
!12
Disrupting
HR EMPLOYEE AND
CANDIDATE
EXPERIENCE
“For HR (and other disciplines
like IT, marketing, finance, law),
disruption denotes new ways to
think about and solve problems.
HR disruption is about delivery
of HR services, but also about The quest to engage, motivate, and reward employees is an
the logic behind that delivery. ongoing focus for employers and the reward is elusive.
Disruption is not a noun with an Meanwhile, the war for talent rages on. Employers are in an all-
end state, but a verb where the out push to engage employees and attract candidates. Survey
process of evolving HR
after survey continues to persist as the annual or quarterly
continues. HR disruption is less
about a shift leaving behind one routine. Collecting and analyzing data, attempts at exit
idea for another (e.g., moving interviews, and rounding on employees wind up being a high
from operational to strategic) energy and low-calorie outcome when it comes to recruitment
and more about a pivot of ideas and retention.
• Rapid communication
• Respect
HRCS PERFORMANCE
COACHING AND
Store DEVELOPMENT
Skills shortages and digitalization intensifying, raising performance
takes center stage. Many companies are looking for their
employees to support new ventures that require different skill sets.
HR Digital Checklist This might also be called “reskilling.”
Need a quick start to assessing The very definition of resilience is having the capacity to recover
your digital readiness? quickly from difficulties. It also is having the ability to spring back
into shape or having elasticity. To overcome obstacles requires
Go to the HR C-Suite store for a
checklist to jumpstart your effort! learning new things, picking up new skills and having a positive
mindset.
Take me there!
!14
Now I get this is not easy and especially encouraging an entire
workforce to have a resilient mindset. But the very survival of
organizations depends on its workforce’s ability to adapt to a
new era of business.