WHAT WILL DRIVE THE FUTURE OF HR? - The Future of the HR Function 2021 - Global Upside
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MARCH 2021 • Vol. 09 • No.03
WHAT WILL
DRIVE THE
FUTURE OF HR?
- Andrew Spence,
Workforce Futurist, Global Speaker,
HR Technology Board Advisor
Themed
Edition on
The Future
of the
HR Function
The Future of
the HR Function 2021
Page 21- 56
Sponsored by:
HR Strategy & Planning Excellence
INDEX MARCH 2021 Vol.09 No.03
Themed
06
What Will Drive The
Edition on
The Future Future Of HR?
of the
HR Function Organizations need new
workforce strategies to succeed
- Andrew Spence, Workforce Futurist,
Global Speaker, HR Technology Board Advisor
On the Cover
Articles 17 One Unprecedented Year
For Everyone Including
68 A COO’s Take On Lessons
Learned From The
Human Resources Pandemic
SPONSORED What employees are missing What’s changed and what
10 Reimagining HR For and yearning for the most should remain the same
Physical Therapy - Philippe Weiss, President, - Sankar Lagudu, Co-Founder
Seyfarth at Work and WorkRight & COO, RFPIO Inc.
A conversation with Dr. Solutions
Shondell Jones
70 Fundamental Steps HR
- Amy Frampton, Head of 61 DE&I Commitments: Do Managers Must Take To
Marketing, BambooHR You Have The Data And Improve Hiring
Technology To Walk The To become an employer of
Talk? choice, flip the script and
It’s up to HR to turn promises engage in a growth mindset
into real progress - Todd Palmer, CEO/
- E.J. Marin, Director, Solution Entrepreneur, Diversified
Engineering, HCM, HANELLY, Industrial Staffing
Nakisa
The Future of the HR Function 2021
Prepare HR to meet the challenges of a newly
transformed world of work
Page 21- 56
Top Picks INDEX
08
3 Ways HR Can Drive Lasting
Changes In The Workplace
The best thing a company can do today
is to scrutinize its working processes
- Lynn Langrock, Vice President, Human
Relations and Corporate Affairs, Bimbo Canada
13
HR Needs To Continually
Reinvent Itself
Moving from benchmarking and
best practices to guidance
- Dave Ulrich, Co-Founder
& Principal, RBL Group, Norm
Smallwood, Partner and Co-Founder,
RBL Group and Alan Todd, Founder
& CEO, CorpU
58
The Future Of HR Is Global
How can HR prepare
- Ragu Bhargava, CEO & Co-Founder,
Global Upside Corporation
64
Beyond Hi-Tech: Taking A
“Deeper Dive” Into HR Issues
Realize what technology can do,
and where human insight still
needs to play a lead role
- Scot Marcotte, Chief Technology
Officer, Buck
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EDITOR’S NOTE
A s organizations today
are struggling to manage
their workforce and keep their
download the complete report
and infographic here.
The Future of HR is Global by Ragu
Bhargava discusses why HR
professionals will increasingly be
businesses steady, they are Check out our cover article, What asked not just to think globally,
relying on their HR departments Will Drive The Future Of HR? by but to develop policies and best
to support employees. Seldom Andrew Spence that talks about practices that work for a range of
in history has the HR function the drivers of change that will different states and countries.
needed to pivot so quickly and shape how we think about and
dramatically to meet such urgent deliver workforce solutions in the The year 2020 shed light on many
workforce and business needs. next decade. HR practices and processes in
These trends are requiring HR need of improvement, and nudged
to rethink its roles and priorities In 2021, HR professionals and one to look back at what’s
while the world of work is business leaders will continue to changed and what should remain
transforming. have the attention of associates, the same. The strategic goal for
customers and stakeholders like HR – now and always – is to
How well does your HR never before, says Lynn Langrock have the right people to meet the
department meet the needs of in her article, 3 Ways HR Can Drive needs of the business, today and
your organization? What should Lasting Changes In The Workplace. in the future.
HR focus on to prepare for the Lynn puts forth three strategies to
future? This issue of HR Strategy help make change stick. We hope you enjoy reading all the
& Planning Excellence includes articles in this issue and get back
articles that offer strategies to In their article, HR Needs To to us with your valuable feedback.
prepare for the future of HR. Continually Reinvent Itself, Dave
Ulrich, Norm Smallwood and Alan Cheers!
Also included in this issue is a Todd talks about why HR needs
survey-based study by HR.com’s to continually reinvent itself to
HR Research Institute, The Future realize its potential for creating, Have a say?
Write to the Editor.
of HR Function that looks at the delivering, and capturing value.
attitudes, concerns, priorities, and
skills of today’s HR professionals
as well as their views on what Debbie Mcgrath Babitha Balakrishnan
is critical for the future. You can Editor, HR Strategy & Planning
Publisher, HR.com
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COVER ARTICLE
What Will Drive
The Future Of HR?
Organizations need new
workforce strategies to succeed
By Andrew Spence
T he way we manage people
in organizations has always
been influenced by forces
external to the HR function.
The biggest driver of new HR
operating models from the 1990s
was not from a particular book
or influencer, but from what was
going on outside of HR.
The big industry developments
shaping our functions were in
enterprise software, shared
services, account management,
and the pressure to demonstrate
value. These developments
directly changed IT, Finance, and
HR, in different ways.
our industries and companies earning, learning, and spending
In thinking about people
will look like in the next few our leisure time. The digital age
management for the next decade,
years. Whether we have pay has changed the competitive
again, we need to look outside
freezes, inflated salaries, or lay dynamic between our leisure time
of HR.
on programs to reduce attrition and our working time. We now
of key staff. The subsequent have platforms where teachers
What are the drivers of change
impact on supply and demand and coaches can directly engage
that will shape how we think
for labor will dictate many of our with their clients and where
about and deliver workforce solu-
HR tactics. live-streamers can earn millions
tions in the next decade?
from their Twitch and YouTube
In the Digital-Covid age, the The workforce has changed channels. This will require new
economic response to the substantially in expectations, workforce strategies to attract
pandemic will shape what attitudes, and also ways of and retain workers.
HR Strategy & Planning Excellence presented by HR.com March 2021 6 Submit Your Articles
What Will Drive The Future Of HR?
In an age where Google has struc- networks of teams to accomplish society, how organizations are
tured our data, in work we still use work projects. changing, workforce economics,
the humble resume, invented by and wider technological changes.
Leonardo Da Vinci in 1482. This The work to find and contract
means the quality of our career with new workers for teams will Further Reading
data is poor, making it hard to find be automated using insights Blockchain and the Chief Human Resources
suitable candidates, and for work- from a broad set of data. This Officer – Transforming the HR Function and
ers to find work. A new infrastruc- will enable more frequent and the Market for Skills, Talent and Training –
PDF Report with a foreword from Don
ture for work is being built by the frictionless matching between
Tapscott.
technology and staffing industry, people with skills and work to
using blockchain and AI technol- be done.
ogy. The new infrastructure will
allow people to have sole owner- In this scenario, the role of a
ship of their digital identities and people function will include
career credentials in secure dig- supporting diverse self-suffi-
ital wallets. Over time, more effi- cient teams using workforce
cient and fairer peer-to-peer work technology, to ensure compliance
matching platforms will mean and that company strategy is
there is a more direct relationship being delivered. Instead of using Andrew Spence is an experienced
between employer and worker. the management processes we Workforce Strategist who writes
the Workforce Futurist Newsletter.
inherited from the last century,
In the 2020s as work unbundles, it
leadership will involve nurturing
will rebundle into interesting new
talent networks.
forms. We will see an increasingly
decentralized workforce earn Would you like to comment?
When thinking about the future
more from work platforms,
of people management today, like
bringing more diverse groups into
in the past, it is helpful to focus
the economy. This will unleash
on the emerging changes in our
HR Strategy & Planning Excellence presented by HR.com March 2021 7 Submit Your Articles
TOP PICK
3 Ways HR Can Drive
Lasting Changes In
The Workplace
The best thing a company can do today
is to scrutinize its working processes
By Lynn Langrock
Create a “Deeply Humane” Culture
Humane workplace cultures help create the
empowerment, accountability and belonging
associates need to become change agents for the
business. Being humane means more than just
providing a safe place to work and fair wages. It
means listening actively to associates’ needs and
evolving programs and policies to meet them. One
way to achieve this is by offering training in human
rights and mental health, as well as investing in
formal opportunities for associates to engage with,
and give back, to their community.
D uring the last year, Covid-19 has created great
challenges for businesses that have kick-started
new ways of thinking and working. The shift to
At Bimbo Canada, we are creating a deeply humane
culture that values safety, potential, talent and
compassion among our associates. For us, safety is
remote work prompted some companies to expand not just about protecting ourselves from something,
digital operations, while others created new safety it’s about protecting ourselves for something: for our
processes or improved hiring practices. families, for our friends and for the things we love
to do. Prioritizing safety and well-being – including
In 2021, HR professionals and business leaders mental health and belonging - is a key part of that.
will continue to have the attention of associates, In 2020, we provided on average 12.7 hours of
customers and stakeholders like never before. As we training per associate on a variety of topics including
enter the recovery phase of the pandemic, check out mental health, leadership, diversity and inclusion and
three strategies to help make change stick. resiliency to our associates.
HR Strategy & Planning Excellence presented by HR.com March 2021 8 Submit Your Articles
3 Ways HR Can Drive Lasting Changes In The Workplace
Given the opportunities to develop new technical and associates safe. Our approach was instrumental
leadership skills, associates in humane cultures feel in staying a few steps ahead and meant we were
valued and have a heightened sense of belonging – able to minimize the impact of the pandemic on our
whatever their skills or specialty – making it more operations.
likely they’ll adapt and drive change and continue to
grow and achieve their full potential. Create a Sense of Workplace Belonging
Diversity, equity and belonging are three of the most
Be Solutions-Driven and Agile important issues facing leaders today. Events in the
Whatever the challenges, HR professionals are often summer of 2020 prompted many organizations to
tasked with helping find creative solutions. A solu- re-examine their commitments and this was reflected
tions-driven approach that draws on a team’s critical in the associate experience.
thinking, evaluative, analytical and decision-making
skills can help. Start small and assess the situation. Workplace belonging brings many benefits,
Drill into many potential outcomes based on all the including an estimated 56 per cent increase in job
information available and the resources you have at performance, 50 per cent reduction in turnover, and
hand. Stay agile enough to figure out what works in 75 per cent fewer associate sick days. Even minor
the moment. This approach may not always offer a feelings of exclusion have been found to cause an
quick fix, but it does allow for forward-thinking action immediate 25 per cent decline in performance on a
that can help lay the groundwork for lasting change. team project. The risks of inaction have never been
clearer. We all have both a humane and business
At Bimbo Canada, a solutions-driven approach responsibility to make sure every associate feels they
was instrumental in developing the Covid-19 belong in our company.
crisis and business contingency plans that were
communicated in January, 2020, well before the We are living in a transformative time. Increased
virus was declared a global pandemic. Ultimately, stressors on HR professionals that have required a
our plans ensured a quick response in March and great deal of compassion are not going away any
mandated that associates start working from home time soon. The best thing a company can do today is
before the government instructed it, allowing us to scrutinize its working processes. Figure out what
to focus all efforts on ensuring the safety of our is working, what is needed and what needs mending.
frontline workers while maintaining our commitment If there is an area of your business that is no longer
to feed Canadians. Because we took learnings from serving a purpose – change it – because the time
past crises and applied them to a quickly evolving for change is now – and don’t ever forget about the
situation, we were able to act quickly to keep our people!
Lynn Langrock is the Vice President of Human Relations and Corporate Affairs at Bimbo Canada, a
division of Grupo Bimbo. Lynn has held a number of progressive positions in General Management
and Human Relation functions in a variety of public and private industries and companies including:
Maple Leaf Foods, The Economical Insurance Group and the Government of the Northwest
Territories. She is a highly-effective and high-energy change agent who leverages strategic and
tactical management skills to excel in demanding and dynamic environments while remaining
focused on pragmatic sustainable HR solutions. Her current role is that of an HR generalist who
understands the business issues and partners with functional leaders to support them as they drive
to find the best methods of achieving their business objectives. Lynn volunteers for and sits on the
Board of Directors of Ernestine’s Women’s Shelter that provides a safe place for women and children
fleeing violence.
Would you like to comment?
HR Strategy & Planning Excellence presented by HR.com March 2021 9 Submit Your Articles
Reimagining HR
For Physical Therapy
A conversation with Dr. Shondell Jones
By Amy Frampton
P hysical therapists Dr. Shondell Jones and Dr. Finding the Right Technical Support
David Edwards founded Kinetic Physical Therapy When Shondell started researching HR software to
and Wellness in 2010. Growing from a partnership help stay ahead of his growing administrative
into a group of dozens of dedicated providers, Kinetic workload, BambooHR was his choice for the clinic’s
provides one-on-one physical, occupational, and current and future needs. A technology that makes
speech therapy services throughout the Greenville, it easier to send communications to team members,
North Carolina area. We spoke with Shondell about easier to offboard with consistent processes, and
his experience in expanding a small partnership into easier to stay compliant, were of high importance.
a thriving provider group while keeping the employee
experience in mind. Recognizing the Employee Is the First
Customer
Beginning with the Goal of a Better Shondell recognizes how giving employees a good
Workplace experience is essential for making a good impression
Shondell and David had seen the difficulties physical with clients. “We’ve got a culture that says ‘do what’s
therapists face in the business administration best for the customer.’ But we’ve learned that once
aspects of private practice, so they set out to create people make their minds up, it’s harder to change it
something better. “My business partner and I worked than it is to make a good impression in the first place.
together for years,” he explains, “and we’d always talk That goes for employees as well as clients. So, your
about this dream environment where people would first customer is your employee—if they’re unhappy,
love going to work, [with] great benefits, good paid they’re not going to go out and be happy with the
leave, and an environment where people can grow, client. If you don’t have a good team, you’re not going
both as professionals and individuals.” to get a good result.”
Providing this ideal environment meant overcoming Their mission is just as much about helping their
several logistical challenges. He and his business therapists grow and succeed as it is about helping
partner struggled with the technological aspect their clients grow and improve. As the company
of managing multiple therapy providers as they grows, Dr. Jones and Dr. Edwards give their staff new
provided services in schools, homes, nursing career opportunities by creating additional leadership
facilities, industrial sites, and many other settings. roles for teams and locations. They also recognize
“All of our administrative programs were one-device the importance of ongoing training, including
licenses and manual entry. My business partner promoting experienced therapists to support
and I had to keep up with all our time off, benefits, beginning therapists.
recruiting, and therapist licensing requirements on
one shared computer.”
HR Strategy & Planning Excellence presented by HR.com March 2021 10 Submit Your ArticlesReimagining HR For Physical Therapy
“We don’t want to take for granted that hallway
conversations are enough” remarks Shondell. “We
use the one-on-ones to be a bit more individualized,
to let them bring up their concerns and professional
goals in a place where they can open up and know
we’re listening. We’ve even created new roles based
on feedback from our therapists.”
Shondell knows Kinetic needs to translate its values
into the experience their employees have every day.
“If we can find good people who want to learn, “As founders, we hope that, as we have grown, the
our recruiting works," says Jones. “I’d rather have way we imagine that Kinetic is, is truly what it is to
someone who wants to learn than someone who the employees. We are proud of what we have here at
thinks they know it all, even if that person only has 50 Kinetic but we realize that everyone’s proud of their
percent of the skills. We can help that person grow, own baby. We hope our employees are seeing it the
give them autonomy, help them gain mastery through same way that we do.”
education, and link them with a sense of purpose.”
With consistent efforts to understand their
Nailing the First Impression During employees, Kinetic can better match roles to its
Hiring and Onboarding employees’ passions. And that produces better
With help from the BambooHR® Applicant Tracking results because, as Shondell says, “If someone
System, Kinetic can more easily find the right people is passionate about something, you don’t have to
in a timely manner. Shondell especially appreciates remind them to do it, it’s always on their mind.”
the efficiency in posting and managing job ads:
“When we’re hiring, we can put a job ad in our system The Best of Both Worlds
and have something out in minutes to Indeed and With the help of BambooHR, Shondell can balance
Glassdoor. The ATS makes referrals easy—if we his own passion for serving patients with the drive
have a new graduate from a school in Pennsylvania, to create a great place to work. “I have a passion for
they’ll say ‘my roommate is looking for a job, too,’ so both sides, both the clinical and the administrative. I
we’ll get a two-for-one without a lot of extra copying love to create the administrative systems, I love the
and pasting.” vision casting. But if I have to just sit at the computer,
I miss being around the patients. So, I’m still involved
The onboarding process has also become much in patient care, although I don’t have as much of a
more streamlined, removing the need to take load as I did in the past. I get away with it through a
Kinetic employees away from therapy to handle lot of teaching and mentoring,” he laughs. With great
administration. “We used to have to do our technology in place, it gives Shondell the time he
onboarding manually, and printing out the paperwork needs to fulfill his vision by maximizing automated
for each person takes a lot of work, not to mention processes for both employees and patients.
scanning [it] in. As you grow, you either have to add
more people or better systems to keep up.”
Amy Frampton is Head of Marketing
Actively Listening to Employees at BambooHR.
With so much emphasis on the career growth of their
therapists, the clinic finds performance management
essential. They dedicate time for one-on-one
meetings or calls between employees and their team Would you like to comment?
leaders two or three times each year, and schedule
semiannual self-assessments for each team member.
HR Strategy & Planning Excellence presented by HR.com March 2021 11 Submit Your ArticlesSTRATEGIC HR IS
OUR MISSION
With the right tools, HR can become the strategic partner every organization needs.
BambooHR streamlines hiring with award-winning applicant tracking, centralizes
and safeguards all your data, empowers employees with easy mobile and desktop
dashboards, and handles operational tasks that stand in the way of what really
matters: creating a workplace where talented people can exceed expectations.
We set you free to do great work.
bamboohr.comTOP PICK
HR Needs To Continually
Reinvent Itself
Moving from benchmarking and
best practices to guidance
By Dave Ulrich, Norm Smallwood and Alan Todd
must move beyond these descriptions of HR work
to prescriptions. Descriptions chronicle what has
been or is being done; prescriptions anticipate
what should be done. Descriptions focus on
activities or initiatives; prescriptions focus on
results. Descriptions compare oneself to others;
prescriptions show how to improve oneself to
achieve desired results. Descriptions benchmark and
seek best practices; prescriptions guide choices to
deliver results through vested practices.
We have reviewed how benchmarking should pivot
L ike other functions (and organizations, leaders,
and individuals), HR needs to continually reinvent
itself to realize its potential for creating, delivering,
to guidance. Let us now propose why best practice
focus needs to evolve to make guidance happen.
and capturing value.
Pervasiveness of and Challenges to Best
Practices
Recently, we have had conversations with thoughtful
For decades, all of us in the human capital profession
HR trendsetters. They almost all propose reinventing
has relied on best practice logic. We observe what
HR through benchmarking and best practices.
leading companies do and try to distill and share
Benchmarking reports how well HR is doing against
that information with others. Best practice work
a standard (global, industry, or historical norm) to
shows up as case studies of leading companies
build on strengths or to overcome weaknesses; best
in seminars, talks, articles, books, workshops, and
practices suggest how to improve by learning from
training sessions. Best practice work shows up when
others. Both have had a long history in shaping the
consulting firms recommend to their clients the
HR profession and both will continue to be important,
innovative work that their other clients have done.
but we must take them a step further.
But using best practices falls short when human
Now is the time to reinvent HR by pivoting from
capital issues become ever more central to
benchmarking and best practices to guidance.
changing business conditions. Consider the
Instead of improving by comparing oneself to
following examples.
others and by adapting what others do well, we
HR Strategy & Planning Excellence presented by HR.com March 2021 13 Submit Your ArticlesHR Needs To Continually Reinvent Itself
1. Best practices focus on others and not ones 3. Best practices are often piecemeal and
Here’s how this might be remedied: At a not systemic. Too often a best practice is
personal level, I don’t need to be as (fill in the considered in isolation (e.g., here is what a
blank: well dressed, wealthy, educated, cheerful, leading company did in leadership training), but
etc.) as someone else, but I do need to take not within the entire context (leadership training
care of myself well enough to have personal occurs in the context of hiring, performance
well-being and fulfill my potential. In human management, executive commitment, cultural
capital work, comparing to and learning from norms, and so forth). Adapting only a piece
others is good, but the primary agenda should of the overall system does not often transfer
be determining whether or not the human success to another setting.
capital “best” practice will help your company 4. Best practices create circular thinking.
meet its unique goals. The benchmark should Observing and learning from others often
not be others but yourself and working toward causes us to share existing ideas rather than
personalized goals. innovate new ideas. Progress comes from
2. Best practices focus backward more than spiraling forward more than recycling the past.
forward. Learning what others have done will
always leave you behind them as they reinvent. Benchmarking that leads to using best practices
As one leader said, “I hope others will copy has been and will be a fundamental approach to
our programs today because by the time they improving human capital, but to reinvent HR, we
have copied them, we have moved on to the need to build on that work and meaningful pivot to
next practice. They will never catch up by guidance (see Figure).
copying us.”
HR Reinvention from
Benchmarking to Best Practice to Guidance
Benchmarking Best Practice Guidance
What human capital initiatives
Answers the How do I compare to What are others doing that
should I invest in to deliver key
Question: others? I can learn from?
results
Starts with … How am I doing? What are others doing? What should I be doing?
Build on strengths; Learning and mimicking Investing in initiatives that
Improve through …
Overcome weaknesses what others have done deliver results
Fundamental
Description Imitation Prescription
assumption
Primary analytics
Dashboards/ Scorecards Insights and interventions Impact and outcomes
tools
Generally scores on Evaluates which human
Accesses others’ practice
single human capital area capital area (talent, leadership,
Breadth in a specific human capital
(talent, leadership, or organization, HR) and initiative
initiative
organization) delivers results
HR Strategy & Planning Excellence presented by HR.com March 2021 14 Submit Your ArticlesHR Needs To Continually Reinvent Itself
Moving to Guidance of employees within the organization through
Guidance builds on benchmarking (which sets surveys, with indicators from organization data (e.g.,
a baseline for how your organization compares productivity of employees measured by revenue or
to others) and best practices (highlighting profit per employee, etc.), or by public indicators
which practices others have successfully used). accessed through social media. For example, in the
Guidance focuses on what should be done to United States, the Securities Exchange Commission
deliver your organization’s results from human (SEC) now requires disclosure of human capital
capital investments. metrics that can be compared to others.
Step 1: Define desired results Step 4: Determine which human capital initiatives
deliver desired results
HR is not about HR but about helping five
stakeholders receive outcomes that matter to them: Algorithms determine which of the 36 human capital
employee (productivity and wellbeing), strategy initiatives impact each of the five stakeholder results.
(direction and execution), customer (net promoter These algorithms provide guid0ance about where
score and customer share), investor (financial to invest in human capital to deliver the outcomes
results and intangible confidence), and community that matter.
(reputation).
Step 5: Invest in the human capital initiatives
Step 2: Classify human capital initiatives that matter most
There are thousands of human capital initiatives Once the prioritized human capital initiatives are
(processes, practices, or interventions) that have identified, they can be innovated and improved.
been and can be implemented. We have classified Instead of putting resources into what other
these complex ideas into four human capital companies are doing (best practices), companies can
categories and identified specific initiatives in invest in tailored work they should do to achieve their
each pathway: talent (9 initiatives), leadership (6 outcomes.
initiatives), organization (12 initiatives), and human
resources (9 initiatives). These four pathways and 36 Step 6: Monitor the impact of human capital
initiatives capture the breadth of human capital. investments on results over time
An organization guidance system is not a single
Step 3: Measure human capital initiatives event or snapshot but a longitudinal evaluation of
Each of the 36 human capital initiatives can be which human capital investments lead to desired
measured in several different ways: by the perception outcomes.
HR Strategy & Planning Excellence presented by HR.com March 2021 15 Submit Your ArticlesHR Needs To Continually Reinvent Itself
that guidance is not only valuable but possible. Even
more, starting is easy. Go to www.rbl.ai to take the
short assessment and receive a free report.
Going forward, we envision any business or HR
leader talking about human capital to be less
focused on doing what others do and more
committed and informed about what they can do
within their organization to achieve their desired
outcomes. Instead of talking generically about
the latest HR trends in (fill in the blank: employee
experience, digital HR, agility, HR design, etc.),
business and HR leaders can prioritize and invest
These six steps sound easy; they are not. They in specific HR initiatives that create, deliver, and
require a fundamental pivot from focusing on capture value.
benchmarking and best practices to using guidance
to innovate impactful initiatives. The good news We strongly believe that now is the time for HR to
is that we have spent two years creating an reinvent itself by moving beyond benchmarking and
organization guidance system that validates that best practices to guidance.
Dave Ulrich is the Rensis Likert Professor of Business at the Ross School, University of Michigan,
and the Co-Founder & Principal at the RBL Group. He has helped generate award-winning databases
that assess alignment between external business conditions, strategies, organization capabilities,
HR practices, HR competencies, and customer and investor results.
Norm Smallwood is a Partner and Alan Todd is the Founder & CEO
Co-Founder of The RBL Group. He is of CorpU. A pioneer in the field of
co-author of eight books: Real-Time corporate learning, Alan has served
Strategy, Results-Based Leadership, as Chairman, CEO, and co-founder of
How Leaders Build Value, Change KnowledgePlanet, a company that
Champions Field Guide, Leadership helped launch the online learning
Brand, Leadership Code, Leadership revolution. Alan served as a founding
Sustainability, and Agile Talent. Norm member and trustee of Harrisburg
was a founding partner of The University of Science and Technology,
Novations Group, Inc. where he led the first private non-profit university
business strategy, organization in Pennsylvania established in over
capability, and design projects for 100 years. He also served as a
a wide variety of clients spanning Wharton entrepreneur-in-residence
multiple industries and geographies. and education entrepreneurship
adviser at the Penn Graduate School
of Education.
Would you like to comment?
HR Strategy & Planning Excellence presented by HR.com March 2021 16 Submit Your ArticlesOne Unprecedented Year
For Everyone Including
Human Resources
What employees are missing and
yearning for the most
By Philippe Weiss
One-Year Anniversary
of COVID
Stay-at-Home Orders
What Employees What Employees Hope For,
Miss Most, One Year In: as COVID Recedes:
More Flexible Work Options
e.g. staggered remote workdays and schedules 72%
In-Person and Regular/Daily Return of Lunches &
“Grown-Up” Workplace Structure Happy Hour with
Conversations of an Office Colleagues More Employer
61% 42% 40% Emergency Planning
for future pandemics/crises/downturns.
59%
More Focus on
Company Values
concerned with society,
44%
Reduced “Kid-terruptions” Resuming the AM/PM not just bottom line.
of Workday Commute (thinking/reading time)
37% 16%
Source: Seyfarth at Work spot surveys of >500 presentation participants.
(Companies of all sizes participated. Data collected through 2/12/21. © 2021 Workright Training LLC. All rights reserved. | seyfarthatwork.com
Respondents could offer more than one answer.)
T his month marks the one-year anniversary of the
first large-scale Covid stay-at-home orders. The
milestone is significant as it provides an opportunity
for HR professionals to look back as well as forward
in order to best serve employees/organizations
entering a new pandemic phase.
HR Strategy & Planning Excellence presented by HR.com March 2021 17 Submit Your ArticlesOne Unprecedented Year For Everyone Including Human Resources
HR professionals across industries have faced vigilant in ensuring that socializing between those
unprecedented challenges and questions during the who have not seen one-another in months (and want
last 12 months, including: to make-up for lost time together) doesn’t pull staff
●● How to institute Covid safety protocols, while too far away from work obligations.
reassuring jittery employees,
Finally, HR professionals are taking cues from the
●● How to manage a full or partial office exodus as
latest data regarding what team members have
Covid emptied workspaces,
missed most about the pre-Covid times and their
●● How to deal with unprecedented furloughs and hopes for the future at work.
layoffs; and now
●● How to plan for a potential “return to office” In that regard, the attached infographic was
migration- as well as a variety of hybrid work developed from data we recently collected from over
arrangements. 500 sessions participants representing companies of
all sizes. It illustrates what employees are specifically
missing and yearning for most at the one-year mark
This last item involves thinking-through tough
and what the pandemic has changed about their
strategies that can assist with effectively integrating
future work-life expectatins:
and or ‘re-onboarding’ your team members.
I. What Employees Miss Most,
Such ‘re-onboarding’ includes being cognizant that
One Year In:
some of your people might be cautious, reluctant or
worried about coming back. Accordingly, in many Survey responses indicated as a percentage
cases, our clients are planning communications or (respondents could offer more than one answer)
evaluating training intended to reassure staff that
management is doing everything it reasonably can in ●● Renewed In-Person and “Grown-Up” Workplace
terms of safety-related protocols. Conversations - missed by 61% of employees
●● Regular/Daily Structure of an Office - 42%
Some HR clients are also identifying and offering ●● Return of Lunches/Happy Hour with Colleagues
employees “pre-views” of upcoming projects - 40%
that benefit from in-person collaboration, or
●● Reduced Kid-terruptions of Workday - 37%
showcasing recent workspace enhancements.
As an example, one design client is sending-out ●● Resuming the AM/PM Commute (as a time to
interior office maps to all soon-to-return employees think/read) - 16%
highlighting improvements and “right of way” hallway
rules that ensure distancing. - Their plan incorporates
a set of employee-designed and highly stylized II. Workers’ Emerging Expectations of
directional posters. One representative sign states: Employers, as Covid Recedes:
“Stop Here (in our renovated employee snack bar) For a ●● More Flexible Work Options (e.g. remote
Socially Distanced Chat.” workdays; staggered schedules) - cited by 72%
of survey respondents
The key is to communicate with employees with ●● More Employer Emergency Planning (for future
messaging that is clear, but at the same time, pandemics/crises/downturns) - 59%
positive, attractive and resonant.
●● More Focus on Organizational
Values (concerned with society — not just the
Other of our HR clients are already priming its
bottom line) - 44%
managers to be both empathetic as well as more
HR Strategy & Planning Excellence presented by HR.com March 2021 18 Submit Your ArticlesOne Unprecedented Year For Everyone Including Human Resources
Given some of these results, and beyond the One client, for example, is planning to encourage
strategies described above, we also recommend that managers to ask those “zooming”-in to any meeting
HR representatives and leaders plan for re-training of that also includes live participants to be the first to
managers regarding all on-site policies and protocols. speak, where feasible. Doing so helps ensure that
Be purposeful about giving them specific tools and remote folks have an equal voice. Another client
opportunities for this new age of working, such as - in the insurance space - is already planning to
remote interviewing skills guidance and training on set aside several “in-office team days” per month
how to manage a hybrid workforce (folks splitting — thereby allowing for periodic team cohesion as
time between home and the office). well as for individual work-location flexibility all the
remaining days.
Philippe Weiss, J.D. is the President of Seyfarth at Work and WorkRight Solutions. Philippe
collaborates with executives and business owners to help them achieve compliance, workplace,
and individual career success via dynamic, practical strategies and solutions.
Would you like to comment?
HR Strategy & Planning Excellence presented by HR.com March 2021 19 Submit Your ArticlesaPHR ™ For Aspiring
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In Association with
www.hr.com/prepcourseSpecial Research Supplement March 2021
The Future of Prepare HR to meet
the challenges of a
the HR Function 2021
newly transformed
world of work
MARCH 2021
INTERACTIVE
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HR Strategy & Planning Excellence presented by HR.com
March 2021 22 Submit Your Articles
| 1.877.472.6648 | hr.com/industryresearchINDEX
RESEARCH REPORT SUMMARY
24 The Future of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion 2021
Survey conducted by: Sponsored by:
ARTICLES
The Future of Work is The Benefits of HCM
30 Human: Reimagining HR 43 Software: New Year,
Technology with Soft Skills Data New HCM Solutions
Do More with Less: The 2021 Sourcing
34 7 Ways to Automate Hiring 48 Strategy Guide
and Background Checks
By Kelly Peters, Content and
By Clare Horvik, Sr. Contributor & Director of Communications Manager, JazzHR
Marketing, Verified Credentials, Inc.
The State of Diversity in How to Build a
39 the US Labor Force
52 Virtual Onboarding
Program
By Katie Saba,
Product Marketing Manager, Circa
The HR Research Institute, powered by HR.com, the world’s largest social network
for Human Resources professionals, is a key part of our mandate to inform and
educate today’s HR professionals. Over the past three years, the HR Research
Institute has produced more than 85 exclusive primary research and state of the
industry reports, along with corresponding infographics in many cases, based on the
surveys of thousands of HR professionals. Each research report highlights current HR
trends, benchmarks, and industry best practices. HR Research Institute Reports and
23 Infographics are available online, and always free,
STATEat www.hr.com/featuredresearch
OF THE INDUSTRY RESEARCHThe Future of the
HR Function 2021
Prepare HR to meet the challenges of
a newly transformed world of work
Exclusive Study by The HR HR professionals as well as their views on what is
Research Institute critical for the future.
S ince early 2020, Human Resources (HR) Key Findings
has faced unprecedented challenges due to
●● A majority of HR leaders are in a good
the Covid-19 pandemic. Seldom in history has position to have a strong impact on the
the HR function needed to pivot so quickly and organization.
dramatically to meet such urgent workforce and
●● HR professionals give themselves
business needs. These trends are requiring HR to
reasonably high marks in various areas, but
rethink its roles and priorities while the world of there are also perceived areas of weakness.
work is transforming.
●● HR suffers from a number of skills gaps.
●● HR will face a wide range of key challenges
How well does your HR department meet the in the near future.
changing needs of your organization? What role
●● Higher-performing HR departments far
does HR leadership play in your organization's
outclass their lower-performing counterparts
business/strategic planning process? What should on a wide variety of factors.
you focus on to prepare for further changes over
the next two years?
The Current State of HR
To learn more about the current state of the HR professionals give themselves mixed
HR function, HR.com's HR Research Institute grades when it comes to meeting the needs
conducted a survey-based study that looks at the of their organizations.
attitudes, concerns, priorities, and skills of today’s
24 RESEARCH REPORT SUMMARY STATE OF THE INDUSTRY RESEARCHMore than half (57%) of HR professionals say that
their top leaders would give their organization’s HR
departments a score of 8 or higher on a 10-point
scale, and 58% give their own departments high
ratings. However, only 41% say employees would
rate HR as 8 or higher. This suggests that HR
views itself as better aligned with the needs of top
bosses than with the needs of the employees they
are tasked with supporting.
Further, only 14% strongly agree that their HR
function boosts employee performance.
Survey Question: To what degree do you agree with the
following statements?
Our HR function helps managers do their jobs better 54% 23% 77%
Our HR function in highly productive 51% 25% 76%
Our HR function is shaping the organization’s
workforce agenda
47% 16% 63%
Our HR function boosts employee performance 46% 14% 60%
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Agree Strongly agree
More than three-quarters of respondents agree
or strongly agree that their HR function helps
managers do their jobs better
25 RESEARCH REPORT SUMMARY STATE OF THE INDUSTRY RESEARCHHR leadership is an equal partner in the talent shortages seem to indicate that many HR
business/strategic planning process in 58% of professionals remain hopeful about the economy
organizations. An additional 21% say that during and expect it to be strong enough to make talent
the planning process, HR is asked for talent-related shortages an issue in the near future.
input. HR likely has a considerably lower impact in Another potential impact of Covid-19 is distributed
the 22% of organizations where HR leadership has labor due to remote work technologies, but only
no significant role in business/strategic planning 24% of respondents cite it as one of the top four
or where HR is asked to develop a talent strategy external challenges.
after the business/strategic planning process is
complete. Skills Gaps that Could Hold Back HR
The biggest gap between the perceived importance
Issues HR Will Face in the Near Future of a skill and HR’s current proficiency in skill is
Looking two years ahead, HR is most likely to be in the area of leveraging HR data/analytics. This
concerned about economic conditions, health and is followed closely by skills gap in the ability to
safety, and talent shortages. think strategically and improve the employee
experience. Both are a critical to organizational
The first two are likely a reaction to the ongoing success.
impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Meanwhile,
26 RESEARCH REPORT SUMMARY STATE OF THE INDUSTRY RESEARCHSurvey Questions: How important will the following skills be to the future success of your
82%
Leveraging HR data/analytics
36%
94%
Thinking strategically
58%
92%
Improving the employee experience
56%
93%
Facilitating positive change
58%
84%
Advancing diversity, equity and inclusion
49%
93%
Fostering positive culture and values
61%
93%
Demonstrating leadership
62%
91%
Executing key initiatives
62%
94%
Communicating effectively
69%
90%
Partnering on workforces issues
66%
0 20 40 60 80 100
Importance = essential or important Proficiency = highly proficient or proficient
Only 36% of HR professionals say their organizations are
19
27 RESEARCH REPORT SUMMARY STATE OF THE INDUSTRY RESEARCHIs HR Prepared for the Future?
Interested to learn how these
In looking at which HR functional areas are outcomes and insights may apply
expected to be most critical in the next two to your organization? We invite you
years, three areas are cited by just over 40% of to download and read the research
participants: report and infographic today
●● diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI)
●● leadership development
The Future of
●● change management the HR Function 2021
DEI seems to have become a higher priority
as incidents of police violence and associated
social justice movements—especially in the
United States—have raised the awareness of DEI-
related challenges in the workplace. Leadership
development and change management are
perennial issues, but the massive work-process
changes and leadership challenges of the last year
have likely raised their prominence as issues.
Read the Research Report
28 RESEARCH REPORT SUMMARY STATE OF THE INDUSTRY RESEARCHUnify your workforce Build a culture that brings out the best in your people by giving them the personalized experience they expect. Achieve operational excellence by connecting your business across HR, �nance, payroll, and planning. oracle.com/hcm
The Future of Work is Human:
Reimagining HR Technology
with Soft Skills Data.
Which tools and initiatives consumer and business landscape. In fact, soft
skills are being recognized as more important
should HR teams prioritize to
than hard skills for reskilling, and Deloitte Access
shape talent readiness, sharpen
Economics forecasts that soft skill intensive
their competitive edge, and
occupations will account for two-thirds of all jobs
generate lasting business
by 2030, compared to half of all jobs in 2000.
outcomes? Furthermore, the number of jobs in soft-skill
Companies typically invest heavily in recruiting intensive occupations is expected to grow at 2.5
and training for in-demand skills such as data times the rate of jobs in other occupations.
science, cybersecurity, UX design, etc., but just as
In spite of their rather Employers should
important is cultivating soft skills like learnability,
modest name, in reality be thus considering
flexibility and curiosity. The speed of change in
"soft skills" are the not only how to
the external environment not only means that the
attract top talent
shelf life of hard skills is diminishing (as short as capabilities critical to
with the necessary
5 years according to Deloitte); it is also difficult delivering business value
soft skills, but also
to predict what the next wave of innovation will and adapting new hard
rethink and optimize
require. Even highly sought-after skills like coding skills as workforce needs
L&D strategy to
are not immune to future automation. Therefore,
evolve better cultivate the
HR teams need to identify resilient talent that can
social and emotional skills that their workforce needs
withstand and adapt to change, and also foster
to provide value in the coming years.
such development internally-- and fast.
Now more than ever, there is a strong impetus for A future with soft skills
employees to bring their “soft” skills to work. In Prioritizing enduring human capabilities in the
spite of their rather modest name, in reality "soft form of soft skills is the first step toward fostering
skills" are the capabilities critical to delivering a culture that values both technical skills and
business value and adapting new hard skills as human capabilities, and best positions employees
workforce needs evolve in the face of a changing for long-term professional success.
pymetrics.aiTo do so, you might consider rethinking key effort, risk tolerance, attention, and more with
moments in the talent lifecycle—onboarding, a single streamlined gamified assessment.
development, performance management, career
mobility, to name a few. Where in that lifecycle Over the course of gameplay, pymetrics collects
can you better cultivate, assess, and reward behavioral measures at a millisecond time
your talent’s soft skills? For example, consider scale. For example, instead of asking someone
screening for soft skills in the hiring process whether their approach to making decisions is
through targeted interviews, bolstered by data more instinctive or methodical, we measure it
from intelligent, technologically-driven programs based on how they approach certain scenarios.
designed to measure soft skills specifically. This allows for a much more accurate and
Perhaps update L&D initiatives to focus not just on dynamic reading of the individual’s behavior
hard technical skills, but compared to say, a self-
By translating these behavioral data reported questionnaire,
also develop the soft skills
into actionable insights, pymetrics gives in which responses
such as focus, generosity,
risk tolerance, attention,
HR leaders a way to build synchronised are skewed towards
and more that can be workforce transformation strategies at a what candidates and
most instrumental to the scale, speed, and degree of objectivity employees think the
success of your business. unlike any other. employer is looking for,
inducing significant
These are changes expected to be ongoing, but stress for applicants and amounting to a poor
in reality should begin today. By the time a late user experience overall.
adopter has done all the necessary preparation,
earlier adopters stand to gain in considerable The games take approximately 25 minutes to
market share and will be operating at substantially complete and measure 11 categories of different
lower costs with better performance. As it stands behavioral measures from which to extract signal.
today, only 10% of organizations say they are very The pymetrics games are assessments taken
ready to address this business transformation from the peer-reviewed academic neuroscience
trend, and 59% of organizations believe they literature, with decades’ worth of research to
lack the insights needed to actually act on this support their construct validity and global
issue. This is precisely where pymetrics becomes relevance. With these assessments, our team has
mission-critical. built the talent-mapping mechanism that directly
applies this data to talent management (and
Capturing soft skills data acquisition!) specifically.
pymetrics provides companies with a reliable and
Applying soft skills data
consistent way to identify the essential soft skills
of your workforce as they transform. Our platform So then what? By translating these behavioral
gathers data from your candidates and employees data into actionable insights, pymetrics gives HR
in real time to give you an unfettered view of each leaders a way to build synchronised workforce
individual’s innate behaviors and strengths. We transformation strategies at a scale, speed, and
evaluate soft skills such as decision making, focus, degree of objectivity unlike any other.
pymetrics.aiYou can also read
