#cipdace17 blog 6 - session E3

After another too short break I’m back in another session. This time it’s about Connecting HR, Finance, Operations and Business Leaders, with HR acting as an organisational facilitator to help the organisation achieve its shared goals. 

This will be my final blog from today as I have some work matters to attend to this afternoon and won’t be attending the afternoon sessions. I’ll do a summary blog in a few days though with some wider observations on the whole event. 

Graham Smith from Devon, Cornwall and Dorset Police started off. The two separate forces are due to merge and he had a challenge to bring together two different organisations from a people perspective. He highlighted the Daimler Chrysler merger as one that failed because of an underappreciation of the cultural and people dimensions of such transformational change. 

Andy Boulting, Assistant Chief Constable, took over at this point and explained how HR act as facilitators in things like workforce planning. 

I liked this figure of 8 approach as it ensured all parts of the business are included in workforce planning, and that there are strong links to organisational vision and takes account lots of different supply and demand factors. The HR practitioners have to have the right skill set and right level of trust and empowerment to be able to make this all work. 

Interesting though that on this plan, analysis of supply comes before analysis of demand, and I think this is something many organisations get the other way around. They can be led by demand, and then work on matching supply to it without having first got a real handle on what supply looks like and the volumes therein. 

Gill Quinton from Buckinghamshire County Council then spoke about collaboration across professional disciplines. Her role now encompasses more than just HR and that gave her a unique perspective of how HR could and needs to work with other functions to improve the organisation. 

She ran through Bursins HR Maturity Model and described each level within it to outline what is required from HR teams at each level. She feels that HR needs to do a few things to drive organisational effectiveness: customer focus, business acumen and simplicity. 

I agree with these three things. HR teams that I’ve had experience of have usually had one or two of these three and we have worked hard to develop the third, but it’s been a different gap in different teams in different organisations. 

But, as Quinton pointed out, HR can’t develop and be excellent at these three things on its own. They need help and input from IT, Finance, and business leaders. True collaboration is required. 

This was an interesting case study in how to encourage and develop collaboration and one that is also relevant to current challenges I face. 

Now it’s lunchtime...

Till next time...

Gary

#cipdace17 blog 5 - session D2

So here we are on Day Two, and as predicted I’m a little more tired than I was yesterday. The evening fringe activities last night were all excellent, and then I’ve been speaking this morning at a breakfast seminar on flexible working. 

I may have used the platform to make a big announcement too, something it’s been hard to keep secret. See the Twitter feed for details. 

And now I’m in session D2 on enhancing your brand and attracting the right talent. 

First up is Jane Graham from Wiltshire Council. She talked about the journey they went on from a traditional to innovative approach to talent acquisition and what worked for them. 

The financial challenges faced by local government are well documented, and so the ability to attract the best talent is something that is also difficult. Her first case study was on social workers, where demand exceeds supply at present and there are numerous problems around recruitment and retention. 

They worked with an agency to understand their current employer value proposition and to get to know their target audience more. This proved helpful because it showed them the kinds of things that attracted social workers and helped them to understand why some previous campaigns had not worked. They moved away from using stock images in their campaigns and used images of actual staff, actual things happening at work and used this to refresh their offer. 

The results speak for themselves. They increased the number of applications, reduced turnover, reduced agency spend and filled more vacancies. They also had softer results that improved engagement, and helped them to move into the 21st century!

This approach seems to have worked really well and is one of several organisations I’ve seen who have been on a similar journey and really embraced new technology, analytics and a thorough approach to talent acquisition and employer brand - but in my view you get out what you put in. 

Put in the right amount of effort and you’ll be rewarded. 

Next up was Jon Dawson from Mandarin Oriental Hotels. They had a strategy to become one of the best known employer brands within the UK hospitality sector, separate from their parent company Marriott. They had zero presence in the UK at the time, and were doing this at the same time as recruiting 250 people to actually open and run their hotel. 

The photo above shows the journey they were going on, and he outlined a challenge where the various creative people who worked with them were great in generating excitement and buzz around the brand, but the technical side of having a candidate portal wasn’t ready in time to manage this demand. 

This was an interesting talk of how to create an employer brand and whole new organisation from scratch, and to me highlighted how many organisations are hamstrung by their own history and how, if they started all over again, they would end up with something completely different and at the same time more appropriate for who they are and what they want to do. 

As refreshing and developing our employer brand is something we are about to work on in my current organisation, this was a very relevant talk. 

But now I need a coffee. 

Till next time...

Gary

Ps in other news, check out my recent big announcement...blog coming soon on that 

#cipdace17 blog 4 - session C3

After the afternoon break and some more hurried networking I’m in the final session of the day, session C3, on creating an organisational culture to support flexible working. 

The introduction centred around the fact that the technology is there to allow and support flexible working, but that the barriers are usually cultural. I’ve found this in more than one organisation, although have found technology (reluctance to use) to be a barrier in one or two also. 

Speakers from Forster Communications and Nokia gave examples of how this has been addressed in their workplaces. 

Up first, Gillian Daines from Forster. Forster are a small company, and flexibility of and by employees is crucial to their success. Daines cited some examples of how flexible working has helped with the organisational objectives, and gave some statistics on how flexible working impacts on employee absence, wellbeing, retention and engagement. A lot of this was setting the business case for flexible working though, which although valid and accurate, is not really what I came to this session to hear. And thankfully she recognised this and moved onto talking about the challenges they faced. 

Daines took us through a step by step approach to making flexible working work which I’ve included below. 

Forster, with just 25 employees, went through this process and around half of their employees now work flexibly in some way. That’s a healthy percentage as long as all employees are able to access flexible working and those who haven’t, have made a conscious choice not to. Therein lies one of the cultural barriers - many employees do want to work Monday to Friday 9 to 5 in an office with other people. 

Let them. 

As long as it works for them AND the business. 

Up next was Gareth Davies from Nokia, who opened by admitting to be a Health and Safety professional. Brave. 

Gareth talked about some for the generational differences around flexible working. Whilst he is right that there are different approaches to flexible working, I don’t think these are mostly generational differences - I think they are mindset differences, and there can be some correlation to generational origin but not necessarily. 

He then talked about how connected we all are now, and highlighted the sheer range of flexible working tools that are on almost every smartphone or tablet. These pose dangers to individuals unless they are properly equipped to manage and deal with them. 

Another good example of this was managers benefitting from flexibility and choosing to send emails late at night or at weekends. It’s a personal choice and absolutely fine, but when their direct reports receive these emails do they feel there is pressure or expectation to respond at a time they may not suit them? Something I’ve relatively recently switched myself onto is setting emails to send the following morning, so that I don’t interrupt colleagues home lives. It allows me to work flexibly and do what I want to do when I want to do it, but without creating pressure on anyone else who reports to me. 

Davies offered some cultural tips to make flexible working work. Stopping rewarding the wrong behaviours (like working long hours) was a good step they took. They made flexible working visible and something people could and should talk about, and they gave coaching to line managers on making it work, amongst many other actions. 

This was a good finish to a session that looked at how to overcome some of the cultural barriers, and a good end to a good day. 

Till next time...

Gary

#cipdace17 blog 3 - session B4

After a much needed lunch I had a chance to talk to some people from CIPD about their challenges in developing new and relevant content, particularly around OD. I was pleased to be asked to help and hope that my ideas are taken on board.

Time just gets away from you at this conference and already I’m back in another session. This time B4 and a panel discussion about adopting an ethical approach to HR. 

First up was Ben Yeger, who shared his illuminating stories from his time in the Israeli army, particularly around how he almost lost his humanity through an unethical choice he was presented with. This was such a powerful memory that it was difficult to capture here, but his main point was that you need to act from a stance of peace in order to retain your own humanity and behave ethically. 

Siobhan Sheridan, newly crowned most influential HR practitioner in the UK by HR Magazine and a thoroughly nice person to boot, picked up next. She drew on her own research about ethics. She felt that in her early career she was too scientific and not human enough, and recognised a point in her own career where she felt she had to change and become more human. 

I had a similar Road to Damascus moment in my own career several years ago and have been on a similar journey, but I think with less success than Siobhan. 

Siobhan urged us to consider the human element in everything we do, and it appears to be a hallmark of her recent and very successful career. She advised to consider the impact on people, as individuals, in everything we do. 

Roger Steare from Cass Business School, author and academic, took over nmext. He likened the decisions we all take to the decisions Ben had to take in a war zone, and Siobhan had to take as a high profile HR professional - all choices and decisions have a human element and all have an ethical dimension to them. He made a good point that although computers can now make very complex decisions, they struggle with the ethical dimensions because the computers don’t feel fear, shame or worry. 

He then went on to describe the moral character of the HR professional. He said that in our personal lives we are usually very ethical, but are influenced often by the workplace and the fear factor inherent in many workplaces and lose our human element because we wish to conform to the organisational culture and prevailing order. 

The bad news is, he says, we are close to Banking but even closer to the Media and Politics, and a long way from Healthcare and Nursing as professions. 

He said that where workplaces are modelled on lines of feudal control, then ethical behaviour becomes difficult. This leads to fear and coercion in the workplace and diminishes the ability of the HR professional to behave ethically. But workplaces are human communities and systemic entities that can only be understood at a very local, eg team, level - and therefore can be influenced at that level. 

Essentially, boil the kettle not the ocean. 

Leaders need to create space and safety for individuals and teams to be open and honest with each other and challenge ways of thinking and ways of behaving, in order for us to create room for ethical behaviour. 

In my career I’ve seen unethical decisions be taken, and have been called upon to defend such decisions. I am not proud of that, but it backs up the assertion by Steare that one is influenced by power held by other people and the prevailing culture in an organisation too. 

Siobhan made a point that people are people wherever you go. You need to stay close enough to people to bring them with you, but not so far away as to alienate them to what you’re trying to achieve. 

As someone who often has to wrestle with such dilemmas, irrespective of the ethical dimension, I found this an interesting panel discussion but one that perhaps needed longer to allow us to get into more depth. 

Mark Hendy posed a question from the audience about whether we have seen a tipping point in seeing unethical business behaviour, citing lots of recent examples. Although the panel agreed with the hope and sentiment, a view expressed near to me was that we haven’t, because nothing appears to have changed in the last ten years since the banking crisis. 

It’s hard to argue with the evidence on that, but I too agree with the hope and sentiment. 

Off to the afternoon break now. 

Till next time...

Gary

#cipdace17 blog 2 - session A2

After a rapid break in which I somehow managed to speak to more people in 25 minutes than I thought possible, I’m back in a session. This time it’s A2 on continuous performance management, and a very well attended session too. 

We start with Paula Leach, Chief People Officer at the Home Office, of whom my current organisation is a subsidiary. We share a lot of the same policies and IT platforms, so their journey around performance management was extremely relevant for me and some of the challenges I currently face. 

The challenge faced by Home Office was to move away from a process that was driven by completion rates and more towards one that could demonstrate the business impact of good performance. What they had was too bureaucratic and not very engaging. They wanted to move away from performance management being seen as an HR process and one that was owned by the business and driven by the Board. 

Paula ensured that all representative and other employee groups were fully consulted throughout the process and that regular blogs were published to ensure all employees could be kept appraised of and participate in the ongoing discussions. She reports a high level of engagement because of this. 

Coming from the engagement sessions it was clear that staff wanted something that was employee initiated, conversational and frequent, that had a flexible structure that could be adapted to various situations. However it wasn’t an easy model to develop and this is what they did:

- changed the process by removing forced distribution, creating model conversations, and including a new assessment and standards framework

- invested in learning by providing coaching skills for managers and a two day workshop for senior leaders

- developed leadership by focusing on accountability and assurance, and correlating ratings distributions to business performance

- changed the culture by enabling rather than policing, and realising its a long journey to encourage ownership and not an overnight fix

Next up was Nebel Crowhurst from River Island talking about their own journey, which had some similarities. The drivers for change were quite similar despite the major difference in sector and culture, and the main need - for increased coaching - was also very similar. She shared some telling statistics from within their business - 95% of managers were dissatisfied with the process, and 90% of HR people questioned the accuracy of the process. 

River Island are further ahead on their journey than Home Office are, and could demonstrate some valid success measures around engagement and performance that show their journey is having an impact. Home Office are about to validate their own journey metrics but detail shared from both companies suggests that the journey is worth embarking on and will bring success and much needed culture change. 

Having taken a couple of organisations down this route I can attest to this but can also attest to how difficult it can be. Some organisations don’t have a culture that is ready for this and I’ve blogged separately about this before. My advice is work on the culture before you embark on changing the process, otherwise the process change may not work. This is mirrored by advice from Nebel and Paula. 

This was an interesting session and very relevant to a journey being embarked upon in my current organisation. 

And to quote The Gruffalo, now my stomach is beginning to rumble...

Till next time...

Gary

#cipdace17 blog 1 - introductions, KN1

So here I am again at the CIPD Annual Conference, known this year as #cipdace17. I think this is 14 years in succession I’ve attended and it remains the best development available to an HR professional in any year, in my opinion. 

I’m again part of the Blogsquad for the third year running and I’m thrilled to be given access to all the sessions and everything to do with the conference. Being part of the Blogsquad is often tiring but it’s such a great opportunity and one I am happy to support CIPD by doing. I, here for a day and a half and will be sharing content on this blog and via Twitter and LinkedIn in support of the conference. 

We start with Peter Cheese giving his usual introduction. This year’s theme is embracing the new world of work, and after a nifty introductory video (a new thing in itself), Peter commented on this as he usually does. He gave a quick potted history of the 70 years of the conference, and what things were happening in society and the world of work around 1947, which included some strikingly similar things to what are happening or could happen now. He also commented on the amazing developments in the world of global politics in the last year, many of which couldn’t have been predicted just 12 months ago. His view on this is that populism and nationalism is on the rise, and attributes this to the need for people to have a voice and a perception by many people that they don’t. 

A challenge that arises from this is how do we create safe environments for people to have a voice. A happy and productive workplace will do that, and be inclusive at the same time. The CIPD are working with lots of other organisations to influence how work and employment will look in the future, and Peter outlined some of their key objectives and partnerships in doing so. 

CIPD believe that the best way to predict the future is to help create it. Peter asserts that HR professionals are ideally placed to leverage all the different bits of research and discussions and projects and to shape the future world of work. It’s clear though that there are many challenges ahead, and more of these challenges will be immediately visible in our new digital age, but he’s right that we are well placed to influence what happens from now on...

The keynote speech was from Baroness Martha Lane Fox. She has had a stellar career and has a CV with some enormous highlights. She started off by talking about how weird it is to be in your 40s (she’s two years older than me) and how difficult it can be to relate to our children who have grown up in a different world to us. She highlighted just how far we have come in the use and development of technology in the last 15-20 years, and it really is scary to try to remember how we used to operate as recently as the mid 1990s before the explosion of the internet and the rapid development of technology. 

She also talked about how bad hires can impact on a company. She commented that it’s often the case when you recruit at pace and in great volume. She gave an example of one person who had a great track record and was a competent professional in his previous job, but was simply the wrong fit at the wrong time for lastminute.com and how this helped her to think more about fit when hiring people and not necessarily look at their existing skill set. 

From lastminute.com she moved on to working with the government about digital inclusion and skills across the UK. She started to understand the makeup of how people used the internet because of this. Many people are great at using it, and take these skills for granted, but too many people did not have the access or skills that were needed. As part of this she began to realise that government itself needed to change how it uses technology, and how much of a challenge this was. 

She passionately believes that everyone should have the same level of access to information. And right now that’s not the case. She sees this in her daily life and highlighted a big gap between the general populace and those making decisions about how society operates. 

She believes that the gap around digital understanding needs to close. She believes that inclusion is key, right down to an individual level. She also highlighted the forthcoming legislation (GDPR) which will give more power to individuals to control and manage their own data and how organisations use that data - this will help shape the future of technology itself. Her third point was about closing the gender gap to help fill unfilled vacancies and challenging the existing cultures in digital sectors - not enough women and other diverse groups are underrepresented in technology sectors and this is currently holding those sectors back. 

She closed by saying we are at a critical point in our own development, but that we are at the slowest point of the development. The pace will only increase. People with digital skills are useful now but their skills will be out of date quickly. People with entrepreneurial skills and people skills who are curious and resilient are critical for the future and we should seek out such people. 

And then we are off to a break. I’ll do another blog on the following sessions later today. 

Till next time...

Gary

PS in other news, I tried helping my son with his GCSE Maths revision last night. I really wanted to help and could see he was struggling but despite remembering being good at maths when I was at school, I couldn’t help with his particular struggles as I just didn’t grasp it myself. Never have I felt so powerless and useless as a parent. Never. 

#socialhrmcr

Today I attended the CIPD Manchester Branch AGM and unConference, #socialhrmcr - it was my first time at an unConference and I was interested to find out how they work and whether I could adapt for use in my own work. 

The venue was hard to find but once inside was a good space. There were students doing exams in the building which made it feel different. 

The session kicked off with some Ignite presentations, good for me to listen to as I am making my Ignite debut next month at #CIPDNAP16

The Ignite presentations were delivered by George Whalley, Gemma Reucroft, Tim Scott and Ian Pettigrew, all of whom did very well. There wasn't much of an overarching theme to the presentations although all were excellent, and I am thinking this was as much about throwing out some ideas that might help shape the unConference themes later - and if this was the intention, it was a useful one. 

This also gave me a lot of insight into what makes a good Ignite speech and gave me a bit more confidence that my own Ignite speech next month is going to be a good one as I can build on what I've seen. 

I'm looking forward to it. 

Ian Pettigrew then explained the concept and format of an unConference. Despite lots of coverage of such things on social media, I was surprised that very few people had been to one before (it was my debut too) and hardly anyone knew what one was. This had led to some interesting conversations on my table. 

I like the idea of an unConference and can see how I can use this in my current organisation. 

The conversation on my table took some time to get going, and I wonder how we can encourage the development and sharing of ideas at unConferences to make this a little less forced? But gradually we got there and the agenda began to take shape. 

I liked the ability to vote with my feet and attend whichever sessions I wanted, and even to change horses mid race. I liked the ability to be a bumblebee and cross pollinate between groups too. As a naturally high introvert the ability to choose the level at which I wanted to interact, and with whom, was good. 

I started in the session looking at what is a modern HR function. This appeared at first glance to be something that someone was doing an assignment on, but I wondered whether it probably needed a bit more structure than its initial question provided. However it's a question that I've been asking myself in my new role and wondering about in terms of what role I want my new HR team to play in the organisation. 

The conversation went off in various different directions and highlighted how different HR functions are in organisations currently, and of course whilst there is no one size fits all approach, the myriad approaches to HR make it difficult for the profession to reach a shared understanding of what HR could be in the modern world. 

It was interesting to hear just HOW different HR functions are though, and the different levels of maturity in some organisations. A provocative thought was put forward by one attendee that the modern HR function should not exist at all, and should manage organisational maturity to a level where HR is not required, being wholly devolved to and managed by the line - leaving just a rump OD function to support senior managers. 

I can see how this would work, but doubt many organisations are as mature as they would need to be to achieve it. 

A nice thing happened during this. I was scanning Twitter and noticed a question posed by another group, and answered their question via Twitter. I heard them mention it and it obviously helped them to discuss the point further, so I wandered over to see whether I could help. 

That's the beauty of an unConference and one I could immediately appreciate. 

After a carb loading lunch I went to the next session on how to make flexible working work. I've blogged on this topic more than once, and it was of interest to me as I regularly champion flexible working. 

This was another good session, mainly because the differing views even amongst HR professionals about what constitutes flexible working, and it became clear that organisational culture is the barrier and that even HR staff are subject to the restrictions that culture in some places exert. 

The discussion then went off at a bit of a tangent to focus on HR policies and the role they have in shaping organisational culture. It's clear that there are still big challenges here in most organisations, but improving the flexibility and the brevity of the policy can have a great impact on organisational culture and employee engagement. 

My third and final session was on using technology to deliver and aid learning, something that is highly relevant to my current work as my organisation seeks to increase the amount of learning delivered via a blended approach. 

Some great and very relevant examples were given of just in time learning using technology and how that is used to great effect in different scenarios - delivering learning at the point of need. We also got on to the subject of using technology in conferences, with all the social media usage that comes with that. 

We also covered the accuracy of the 70:20:10 model, something I may cover in a separate blog in the future. I do believe in the accuracy of the model and have a few examples from my own CPD that back this up, and this seemed to be the prevailing view of the group also. 

Like all the other sessions though this one went off at a tangent. I am unsure how to prevent this. Could we reduce the amount of time per session from 60 to 45 minutes to avoid that last 15 minutes of "what shall we discuss now?" - or do we ask for the idea originator to spend the first five minutes of each session really exploring the angles the group could take in discussing it, or posing some questions that need answering per session?

We followed this with some one minute summaries of each session. Whilst this as a concept was definitely useful, it might have been helpful to do that at the end of each group of sessions rather than the end of the day. 

As a concept I really like the unConference and it worked well today. I can see lots of application in the workplace and I think I will plan one. 

Till next time. 

Gary

PS in other news, the wedding and honeymoon are all now paid for and we have made all the decisions regarding flowers, decorations, colours, favours and all associated stuff. Less than 100 days now!

#leadingtheway part 1 of 4

.Today I'm attending an event run by ACAS in Liverpool called Leading the Way: The Future of People Management. I'm covering the event on social media for ACAS along with the esteemed Tim Scott, so you may see a few tweets and blogs from me today on the subject. 

I'll start by saying how unusual it is to see an HR event take place in Liverpool. It's kind of refreshing to see as so much takes place in Manchester. Today's event is at the stunning Museum of Liverpool, and is in some ways a follow on to another ACAS event that took place in July in Manchester, which I covered here: http://hrtriathlete.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/defusing-timebomb.html

Pete Monaghan from ACAS opened the event summarising the aims of the event and introducing the agenda for the day. Gary Millar, who holds various roles in Liverpool, took over to set some context for the event and outline how he will facilitate the event. Gary handed over to Max Steinberg, CEO of Liverpoool Vision, who gave us a good summary of how Liverpool had transformed itself over the last decade. 

For those of you who haven't been to Liverpool recently, it's almost unrecognisable from its past and it's a truly stunning modern city. I came here today to the Museum of Liverpool having not been to the dockside area of Liverpool for maybe 15-20 years and it's much improved. There has been an awful lot of work going on and Max outlined a few challenges that are still to be tackled by Liverpool Vision. Liverpool currently has a lot to shout about and should be proud of its approach to regeneration and investment. 

Of course Liverpool isn't alone in this, and lots of other cities have done similar. But The Guardian, amongst others, have written about the possible dangers of regeneration left unchecked. See http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/architecture-design-blog/2014/dec/12/50-years-of-gentrification-will-all-our-cities-turn-into-deathly-canberra. And I wonder what this trend could leave us with, if left unchecked? Could all cities be built and run on the same model? Undoubtedly attractive and successful, but will they be places that people - all kinds of people - can afford to live? 

Maybe. Let's hope so. 

My main unanswered question, and only briefly hinted about by Max, is about whether anyone is coordinating the work done by all current and future Liverpool businesses to get the right talent in place for the future success it wants? Individual businesses yes, groups of like minded businesses probably, but who is taking the overall strategic view? Gary Millar answered part of this by talking about the need to engage with primary school age children, which is a point I've made a couple of times in previous blogs. But I don't know whether this is a coordinated effort to tie into one overall project. 

If any of you can shed light on this, let me know. Because Liverpool, if viewed as one entity, needs a hell of a People Strategy. 

Peter Cheese is up next. A lot of this talk echoed some points he made at the Manchester event earlier in the year, and I've covered some of these before, but as he had updated some of his thinking and points in the intervening months then I'll summarise again. 

Some of Peters key themes shaping the future of work have been covered extensively elsewhere - namely the globalisation of the economy, and the rise of social media. 

Peter also shared what jobs are likely to be done by robots or computers in the future. HR didn't appear on this list but many transactional jobs did. I wonder WHY HR work couldn't be done by robots though? Surely if the robots are intelligent enough, they could? Or is Peter saying that HR work involves too much emotion for robots to handle? Maybe Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation could handle the HR analytics side of things, but wouldn't be good in a complicated disciplinary?

What he did say though was that workers will increasingly work in different ways, in smaller organisations and connect in different ways than they do now. And he showed that 80% of business value now comes from intangible assets like employees, compared to a MUCH smaller percentage 20-30 years ago. This is true. 

He also outlined the dangers of continuing to cause workers stress, that we should be looking at how people balance their work and life, and how we make workers content and give them a sense of purpose. 

He challenged us to question whether our people management practices are good enough for the future world of work? Maybe they're not. He says we should focus on employee happiness, now a genuine business concern.

When my eldest daughter was just 3 she asked me what I did at work. I don't know if you've ever tried explaining HR to an adult let alone a toddler, but it's hard. I settled on "I make people happy at work". She was satisfied with that, but now thinks I do something involving painting because that's what would make her happy at work. 

But ultimately isn't that what HR is? Not painting necessarily, but finding that mix of activities that unlock employee happiness, and then reaping the rewards of their engagement and productivity?

He concluded by talking about the proliferation of data that's out there about individuals and work, but how little of this is put to good use. I've covered this in some other posts and very recently in conversation with a Chief Executive of an organisation. HR needs to win the debate with Finance about workforce data and to really make something of it. 

I often talk about the amount of data available on modern footballers and other sportsmen, and how that is used, constantly, to analyse and improve performance. But how often do we find this in the workplace? Not often enough, but the data is there if you'd care to look for it...

His final point drew on neuroscience to understand human and organisational behaviour. We can understand the changing external context, we can draw together our insights and analytics, we can have the right HR practices, but we also need to understand and work towards a better understanding of human behaviour and how they relate to organisations. 

True, that. 

Till next time...

Gary

CIPD Conference Blog #1 of many

So here I am at the CIPD Annual Conference and Exhibition (ACE). And this year I'm part of the Blogsquad. 

That means you'll be seeing more blogs from me this next few days than usual. You don't have to read them, but if you do then fantastic. 

I've been looking forward to this and had trouble sleeping last night because I was a little bit excited*

*sad

The train journey was packed and I was eagerly looking round to spot fellow #cipd15 attendees. But how does one spot a fellow HR professional, without the help of a conference badge?

It proved too difficult, and I was making some people distinctly uneasy with my staring, so I had to stop. 

And I arrived in the Press Office to meet my fellow Blogsquadders, feeling a little bit nervous about what was expected from me over the next few days. 

My badge actually says Blogsquad, which is making me a bit giddy. I can see exhibitors clocking this as I walk through the exhibition hall and drawing some kind of conclusion about me base on that. Quite what conclusion, I'm not sure. 

I've picked the sessions I want to attend and am prioritising the conference sessions over the free exhibition sessions, even though those free sessions have been my lifeblood at previous ACEs. My ability to wander the exhibition hall and network is also diminished this year. But the learning I get from the sessions I attend will be enormous, both in my current role and any future work I do. 

I'll blog when I feel I can. Speed blogging is not necessarily my thing, I like to review, edit and polish my blogs once I've written them and this week I'm having to do it fast. 

It's a learning curve. 

I may even have to abandon spell checking, so apologies in advance. 

If you see me wandering round the exhibition or conference, do stop me to say hello and maybe we can grab a selfie that might make it into a later blog or a tweet.

Right now Peter Cheese is opening the conference by highlighting major trends that are changing the world of work, setting things up nicely for Professor Sir Cary Cooper to follow on.

Peter is talking about how HR needs to respond to the challenges posed by the different working environment, and at the same time build a credible profession for the future based around ethics and values, and less around rules and policies. He's mentioned the uphill battle we all face to make our profession noteworthy and credible compared to other more established professions like finance. 

Maybe a start point is to stop HR professionals hiding themselves away on trains on the way to their annual conference.

Till next time...later today probably.

Gary

Knowledge is power?

I was interested to hear on the radio this week that a senior examiner has called for students to be able to use Google in exams. You can read about this here - as long as you promise to come back and read this blog afterwards.

Go on. I'll wait.

Back now? Good. What did you think?

To be honest I can see both sides and this blog is going to give my perspective on this as a father of a boy about to start his GCSEs, as an HR professional who has got where he has partly on the knowledge that is in my head and not online, as a leader in an organisation comprised of a lot of professional "knowledge workers", and as someone who teaches professional qualifications in my spare time.

Yes, I wear a lot of hats.

Firstly as a father. I think to deny students the ability to use google or similar in exam situations is unrealistic, like holding back the tide. My son, and my eldest daughter too, have grown up with the Internet and use it on a daily basis to play games, search for information, talk to friends, shop, bank (yes) and watch content. Neither watch anything as ordinary as a television when they can stream programmes to their phone or tablet. And we don't own any DVDs or CDs any more as the kids prefer to access them online.

So why should knowledge be any different?

It shouldn't. Ask my son a question to which he doesn't immediately know the answer, and he googles it. He has an answer within a minute. And then he remembers that answer and he doesn't have to google for that information again.

Why can't that happen in exams? Finding information is one thing but finding the right information and putting it into the right context and being disciplined enough to avoid browsing onto other things and hitting time deadlines or manipulating the information and drawing conclusions is an entirely different thing. I think these are critical skills for today's growing generations and, at the risk of dumbing down exams, I'd let them use google.

Because I'd bet my house they've used google to revise, and revision should prepare you for the exam as closely as possible. Today's generations will go into the workplace where they will use google daily so why not let them do it in exams?

Those complaining about it are the older generations. Like me. Because we couldn't use google in exams and had to rely on memory retention. So that's my second perspective. I did well in exams mainly because I could remember a lot. I've done well (I think) in my career because I remember almost everything (go on, try me). So part of my professional advantage is the knowledge I hold in my head, and I didn't use google to put it there.

So part of me worries that some Johnny-come-lately (or, more likely, Joanna-come-lately - a future blog may touch on the gender imbalance in HR) might hove into view having nowhere near the amount of knowledge that I have in my head, but access to far more on his phone, tablet, ON HIS WATCH and IN HIS GLASSES.

I tell you, the world is a scary place, and I'm just 39 so imagine how someone a lot older might feel.

That person could knock me off my lofty perch if he is slick enough. So no wonder many older generations don't want to let kids use google in exams.

But here's the thing.

I got where I am through learning. And I can learn almost anything. So all I have to do is learn faster than Johnny-come-lately and I'll be OK. To quote an ex professional wrestler, "beat me if you can, survive if I let you".

And you can buy me an Apple Watch for my 40th birthday.

Lesson - embrace change because you'll be left behind if you don't.

Interestingly I tested this in a recent job interview. I figured for the senior job it was, memory retention wasn't a key issue but information retrieval and structured thinking was. So I put my interview question answers on iCloud and took my tablet in with me. I used it to look up answers as I went along.

I didn't get the job. But I did a damn good interview.

My third perspective is as a leader in an organisation with a lot of knowledge workers. Already I see customer service roles increasingly not requiring knowledge to do the job but knowing how to find and retrieve information and having good interpersonal skills is a bonus too. I can see this creeping in to some housing roles too. So how long before this goes further?

Will I see us recruiting Joiners or Plasterers who turn up at customer properties to do a repair armed only with their tools and a 4G connection to stream YouTube videos of joinery work? Learning on the go? It's not that far fetched and as long as they develop their knowledge and retain it and do a good job (and have good interpersonal skills) then why not?

Will I be recruiting HR professionals in the future who deal with employee relations cases by googling case law, asking online communities for opinions and responding to line manager queries by googling the answer?

It already happens. Not all the time, but I've seen it happen. Are these good HR professionals? Yes. Are they growing in number? Yes. And they have good interpersonal skills to build the relationships they need, not relying on knowledge retention, just knowing how to get hold of it when they need it.

So it's inevitable.

And that leads to my fourth and final perspective, that of a teacher of CIPD and CIH qualifications in my spare time. I mark assignments that already test students research skills and during the completion of which the students have used google and, shock horror, Wikipedia, to develop their answers.

I'm not critical of that. It doesn't say they can't do it and to be honest if I need information on something then Wikipedia is a regular port of call for me too. The question only asks them to find the information, so they have. If it then asks them to add their own views, then they had better do that too and woe betide them if they don't.

So again it's inevitable.

Let it happen. 

However - these professional assignments only rarely touch on interpersonal skills or test such skills.  I do think that in the future world, good interpersonal skills will be a USP for a professional worker, as the knowledge advantage appears to be on the decrease.

What are your views?

Till next time.

Gary

PS in other news, venue now chosen for the wedding and date narrowed down to final week of August 2016. Also, off to Scotland on holiday for a week so no more blogs till I'm back.

Mr Ambassador

Last week I became an Ambassador for the CIPD, via their Manchester branch. This is a swanky sounding title and I've been reflecting on what it means for me in the future, along with my involvement with the CIPD and such things in years gone by.

To become an Ambassador I went to an evening networking event in Manchester city centre run by the CIPD Manchester branch.

I hate networking events. But I'm going to have to learn to love them.

I don't like networking events because sometimes they feel forced. I'm a high introvert, meaning things like this don't come easily to me. The thought of talking to a lot of people, particularly people I don't know, often fills me with dread.

I just can't think in a crowded room. I get all angsty and edgy.

Does this happen to anyone else, or is it just me? I've long suspected I'm antisocial and maybe I am.

I'm not good at small talk with strangers. I can manage it with people I know well, but even at parties you'll find me in the kitchen (at the food usually) or at the edge of a room where I can see what's going on and where I'm not having to be in the middle of a crowd, even if it's people I have known for ages.

So a business networking event, with only a couple of people I have even nodded to before let alone spoken to plus loads of strangers, was a big step for me.

So why did I go?

Partly it was to force myself out of my comfort zone. I recognise I can retreat too often into my little introverted bubble, and whilst I may do all my best thinking when it's quiet and I'm alone, that doesn't necessarily mean I ought to adopt that approach all the time. I needed to grasp the nettle and get out there.

Still, though, for a high introvert like me that's a big ask.

So there I was at the Ambassadors event. It was good and I'm glad I went. I got involved in some discussions about what it is to be an Ambassador, what I could offer and what I could benefit from, and I met some lovely people like @community_mike @olivestrachan @damiana_hr @sammylubby and others.

I thought I'd find it hard, being a high introvert (have I mentioned that?) and that everyone would already know each other and I'd retreat into a corner and get my phone out, but I needn't have worried as the event was set up to encourage interaction and everyone was friendly.

Still though, any tips on networking and small talk for introverts???

So I'm a CIPD Ambassador, mainly for the Manchester branch but by extension for the entire brand.

What does this involve? Well, I get the chance to work on a voluntary basis with the Manchester branch and get involved in what they are doing, whether that be helping at events or working alongside the committee. Ambassadors are seen as future committee members so there's a chance of progressing to some more involvement in the future. I get to promote the work of the CIPD via my own networks, and develop my skills at the same time. I get to promote the benefits of CIPD membership (and upgrading) and the local branch, and can help others to engage more with the CIPD as they progress their professional journeys.

It's a great new opportunity for me and one I am hoping to make work. I can also bring sectoral knowledge to the Manchester branch and expose the branch to what's going on in the housing sector specifically. Around half of the people I met last week were involved in delivering CIPD qualifications or were in the legal profession. I found one person who had previously worked in housing but the rest had very little awareness of how housing works as a sector and some of the HR and OD issues that are present in the sector.

I can maybe use this blog, and my Ambassador activities, to widen the CIPD's understanding of what is happening for HR professionals in housing, and maybe help HR professionals in housing develop themselves by getting involved in wider CIPD activities and exposure to other sectors.

And at the same time I get to build my own networks.

My involvement with CIPD goes back to 1998 when I first started studying the Certificate in Personnel Practice. I'd been encouraged to do the qualification by someone I worked with at ICI in Runcorn who was at that time heavily involved with Manchester branch, and I went with him to a few committee meetings and events. At one point I was lined up to take on a committee role myself but it went wrong somehow.

Someone, either at CIPD HQ in Wimbledon or within Manchester branch, pointed out that I wasn't a full CIPD member at that point and was still studying, and barred me from joining the committee. At the time I felt this was unjust and more than a bit elitist, and took my ball home for several years after that. I wouldn't have anything to do with Manchester branch or the CIPD outside the necessary interactions on my studies.

Then I qualified. And became a full member. And then I started delivering CIPD qualifications myself part time, and got a job in Manchester city centre all of which brought me into regular contact with the CIPD and Manchester branch again.

By then I'd calmed down, but by then the chance to get involved in the committee had gone.

In my various roles delivering CIPD qualifications I've promoted the benefits of membership and upgrading to students. The CIPD has been good to me over the years, and though I do moan about the higher membership fee for Fellows now and again I do feel I get value from it. It's helped my career and I hope it continues to do so. I hope also I can help a few others along the way as an Ambassador.

Till next time...

Gary