Steamroller or the Road?

“Once a new technology rolls over you, if you’re not part of the steamroller, you’re part of the road.”

- Stewart Brand

At work, it seems a new technological wonder – or complication – arrives daily. Just “yesterday” we began receiving “invitations” to Linked In, and then “today” we are told we must “migrate” to Microsoft Office 2010. Though keeping up with all the new technologies may be impossible, at the very least try to keep abreast of the technologies affecting your industry, and how they are likely to do so in the future. Each day put at least a little effort into understanding the new technologies around you. Remember that few employers are willing to employ a “technology-challenged” person, and there’s no law to protect the “techno-disabled.”

Top 10 HR Transformation Articles in July

Story from our Andrew Spence. Interesting articles and a good round up of current events in the HR Transformation space. 

Here are the picks of the HR Transformation articles in July, many thanks to all the writers, analysts and bloggers included.

 

AON bought Hewitt, a significant move in the rapidly developing HR Outsourcing Monopoly Board  as the industry continues its consolidation. In HR Technology, find out who is the 800lb Gorilla in the corner and when will it start swinging it’s weight around? The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) is a key relationship for HR, and Charlie Judy outlines useful tips for maintaining and nurturing this relationship. And making a tenuous link from Finance to Math(s), the analyst, Thomas Otter, provides a career tip and calls for more maths skills in HR. And finally, we always like to look into our HR crystal ball, and Graeme Codrington outlines 9 workforce trends for the coming decade.

 

Thanks to everyone who has sent their Top 10 ideas, this is much appreciated -  @AndySpence on Twitter.

 

1.  HRO’s Summer Gets Hotter – Aon to Acquire Hewitt -  from Linda Merritt, Nelson Hall

There has been further movement in the HR Outsourcing and HR Consulting industries with AON buying Hewitt.  The industry analysts have been busy, but we don’t believe this is ”a sad, bad day for HR Outsourcing?”, as Horses for Sources report. Linda Merritt at Nelson Hall reports this deal is about growth, at Glass Bead Consulting we also see this market growing in the coming years.

 

The global HRO market now has five major global HRO providers – IBM, Northgate Arinso, Xerox/ACS, ADP and Accenture.    We also expect to see some of the Indian based providers up there in the next couple of years (HCL, Wipro, TCS, Infosys and Caliber Point)

So all is not lost, this market is developing and this should ultimately be good news for buyers – watch this space as the HRO Monopoly game continues….

2.  The Care and Feeding of Your CFO – from Charlie Judy, at HR Fishbowl

According to Charlie, if there’s one position in the organisation that most HR leaders have trouble connecting with, it’s the Chief Finance Officer (CFO).

Charlie outlines some useful suggestions for maintaining a good relationship with the Finance community. One of our favourites is to create an “HR Dashboard” that you share with the CFO and their team monthly. Include turnover, headcount, FTEs, cost of benefits, payroll, hiring statistics.

3.  Reading Oracle's tea leaves from Bill Kutik, HR Executive Online

In HR Technology,

“The 800-lb. gorilla of HR technology sits where it wants to, talks when it wants to and, certainly, only to whom it wants to. “

Find out more about Oracle’s Fusion plans from the man in the know, Bill Kutik. Bill also gathers the opinions of other leading industry analysts.

4.  Nine key workforce trends for the next decade – from Graeme Codrington, Tomorrows Today Blog

Working out future workforce trends is important in designing HR Operating Models and HR Strategies. Graeme Codrington outlines some key changes including more older workers, more women in the workplace, unprecedented youth unemployment and generational conflict.

5.  Talent Management systems – Market update – from Josh Bersin

This is a useful overview of developments in the Talent Management Systems from Josh Bersin. This includes ADP’s acquisition of Workscape. Taleo introduces its Talent Intelligence Strategy and Saba introduces Saba Live.

6.   Bring on the math(s) and stats – from Thomas Otter, Gartner

Some Math(s) love in HR from Thomas Otter and Evil HR Lady.

 

“One of my suggestions to HR is to hire a good numbers person, someone with strong undergraduate or preferably graduate statistics.”

 

We couldn’t agree more, HR needs more number crunchers and not just to keep in with the CFO. HR Analytics is essential as our businesses, workforce and economies change.

7. When is a strategy not a strategy? – from Jocelyn R. Davis, Edwin H. Boswell and Henry M. Frechetter, Jr. at TLNT.com

Even as the business environment has become increasingly complex, many strategies have become increasingly simplistic. Some have become so abbreviated that they’re little more than catchy phrases.

This is an interesting article, which poses the questions, is it time to review the HR Strategy?

By the way, check out TLNT.com – the business of HR – a useful source of HR related articles.

 

8. Beginners guide to using social media for HR – Guest post from Natasha Stone on Steve Boese's excellent HR Technology Blog

Some useful and relevant advice from Natasha from Silicon Beach Training which covers Recruitment, Communications &  Social media policy. 

 

On the subject of Social Media, see our article “Are you a HR Twitter Virgin?”, and for those who are not, (ahem) see also our “HR Transformers on Twitter”.

 

9. World Cup Leadership Lessons – Rosabeth Moss Kanter – Harvard Business Review

As well as Leadership Lessons, the World Cup also stimulated some thinking about slightly less important matters, such as :-

 

·         Are there any Talent Management Insights from Football? – from the HR Transformer Blog

·         Why Sport is crucial for managing the nations’ emotions  - with Professor Cary Cooper quoting the great Bill Shankly.

 

If you think we were getting carried away making some wild extrapolations from kicking a ball around a pitch, then Laurie Ruettiman, from Punk Rock HR, brings us back down to earth,

 

“I don’t mean to break the hearts of HR and career bloggers out there, but the World Cup has nothing to do with work.”

 

So back to work it is, unless that is, you do actually work in Football.

10.  Government Cuts: A view from the inside – from Karen Wise's HR Blog

Karen writes about HR in the NHS, and gives some interesting perspectives from the inside. The UK Government is planning to make up to 40% cuts to budgets. Karen outlines some of the challenges including demographics of the workforce and attitudes of the senior team.