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Jan 14 2012
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Business, Employee Engagement, Enterprise 2.0, Human Resources, Leadership, Management, Social Media, Technology

Change & Communications Study Report: Implications For Asia Pacific

Towers Watson (my employer) recently released a report on The 2011/12 Change & Communication ROI Study report. It has great insights about what could organizations do to build Clarity, Confidence and Community in their organizations through effective communications and change management. While I leave you to enjoy the full report, I found some of the charts interesting as they showed geographical breakdowns including Asia-Pacific level data.

In terms of ensuring that employees are business literate and have a good view of organizational performance, there seems to be little variation across the geographical regions. Even so, Asia-Pacific sits at the bottom of the pack on these important issues related to providing clarity and building a sense of connection.

The second issue I spotted was related to Employee Value Proposition (EVP). Given the nature of the talent race in Asia, I think it’s quite a hot issues these days. And interestingly, a higher percentage of Asia-Pacific companies report that they have a clearly defined EVP. However, when it comes to having a segmented EVP approach (e.g. for high performers, high potentials etc.), these companies fare a bit badly. Also, the bigger question is how effectively is the EVP winning mind-share in the talent market.

And as social media powers the new world of communications, there is a fair distance that companies in Asia-Pacific have to go. Only about 30% of the organizations report that they have a documented social media policy in place, the corresponding number for the USA is 77%! Moreover, only a handful of Asia-Pacific companies report that they have the right tools to measure the effectiveness of social media. So, first there is an adoption issue and then, if measurement is not effective, then establishing a clear business case for social media will be a challenge for companies. As for me, I am more interested in finding out how Asia Pacific companies are leveraging these channels for building an open, transparent and collaborative workplace.

All graphs and data credits to Towers Watson
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Oct 15 2011
3 Comments
Human Resources

Key Analytical Skills for HR Professionals

HR organisations in several companies seem to be getting better at collecting data from multiple sources – HRIS data, financial metrics, people metrics, performance metrics etc. However, still, top-notch data analysis remains under the domain of a few specialists. I just come across a few HR professionals who can readily grasp the technical details of a multiple regression or a utility analysis for measuring the impact of engagement on attrition. As HR functions vie to get that seat at the table and position themselves as true business partners, senior executives will be looking at HR for persuasive, data-driven analytics to support key decisions and initiatives. In other words, HR has to get its game right for preparing a “business case” for all its programs.

I would like to propose a some key analytical skills for the HR professionals of tomorrow:

  • Research / Hypothesis Design: HR needs to understand how it can design experiments to validate hypotheses or come up with alternative explanations to organizational phenomena. At the same time, knowledge about effective sample design techniques can come in handy as well. It can help HR design research studies which can be administered to statistically representative samples, instead of the entire workforce. This could help generalize findings and help save on precious time & efforts.
  • Correlations & Regressions: I cannot count how many times I have seen these two key techniques completely misinterpreted or used senselessly. Most importantly, we need to distinguish between the two. Correlation is, simply, two variables moving in the same direction. For instance, employee engagement and financial performance might be positively correlated implying that both generally, move in the same direction. However, we cannot say that one causes the other for sure. On the other hand, regressions help us to form models to explain causality i.e. variables moving in the same direction because one causes the other to happen. For instance, among an employee engagement survey of 50 questions, you can use this to analyze what factors have the largest influence on engagement levels.
  • Financial Analysis Techniques: Now, this is a potentially long list, but there are a few key things that help in working out the business case for key initiatives / decisions. Firstly, there has to be a fine appreciation of costs – fixed costs, recurring costs, and variable costs. Secondly, skills around conducting cost-benefits or break-even analysis would be extremely helpful. And speaking of that, if HR professionals can master concepts around “the time value of money”, they can really start demonstrating the rigour of their analyses.
Of course, this is not comprehensive and I look forward to your views in the comments. What analytical skills would matter the most for high-caliber future HR professionals?
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Sep 03 2011
7 Comments
Employee Engagement, Social Media, Technology

A Mobile Strategy for Employee Engagement

I remember clearly that a couple of years ago, a leading mobile handset manufacturer talked about a term called “micro-boredom”. Micro-boredom happens in very small slices of time in which we do not know how to fill the time. And mobile devices, with their applications, provide the escape route. Clearly, I felt that this is going to be an important trend which will mean that mobile devices with a large apps ecosystem would flourish. That’s what is happening today with iPhone and Android devices. But, importantly, micro-boredom is a trend and people do tend to look at mobile devices as a way to fill in the void. And you can possibly see this trend all around you – think about daily commutes, coffee breaks, waiting for someone – the list is endless. In effect, I think that there are multiple opportunities to have the attention of people.

On the other hand, there is some data (though limited to the USA) from a mobile analytics firm, Flurry, to suggest that mobile app usage is not only increasing over time, but is also actually ahead of the traditional web consumption. This reinforces the strength of the mobile medium.

Combining the two trends above, I feel that the most ubiquitous, available, connected and engaging screen is the screen of a smart-phone. It is always with the individual, it is always on and one can push content on it. While a number of companies are using this screen for engaging their customers, I have not come across companies with a mobile strategy for engaging their employees. The possibilities are endless. It could be an enterprise social networking app to keep up with other colleagues or the latest news about the company or to check out what is the next product being developed by the team on the 18th floor! It could be a video app where people could listen to senior leaders articulating the purpose of the company or the new strategy. It could be an app that provides e-learning. It could be an intelligent recommendation engine app that looks across all your enterprise web activities and recommends books for professional development. Or it could all come together in an integrated app. I could go on, but I am sure that we can conjure up even greater possibilities with this.

I think having a mobile strategy for engaging employees is very important already, though it may not be widely recognized as a need. I think this is a powerful medium to connect and engage with employees. If you have any ideas on how to bring a “mobile employee engagement strategy” to life, do write in!

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Aug 13 2011
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Business, Employee Engagement, Enterprise 2.0, Human Resources, Management, Social Media, Technology

Gamification of the Enterprise

One of the blogs I love reading is The Future Of Work blog by Socialcast. It has great content about things I am passionate about – social media, organization development, employee engagement, collaboration tools etc. They also put up great infographics every now and then. I just couldn’t resist posting their infographic titled “Adding Play Into the Enterprise”. It does a crisp summary of employee engagement trends, the explosion of gaming and how they can be married together. My favorite bit is when they compare the ‘Gaming World’ with the ‘Job World’. So, your job title is the “level”, salary is “score”, promotions are “level up” and performance reviews are the “stat summary”. That’s a cool way to think about it!

Enjoy the infographic! And do share your best ideas on gamification.

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Jan 23 2011
3 Comments
Business, Employee Engagement, Human Resources, Management

The Impact of A Flexible Benefits System on Employee Engagement

A couple of years back, I had written about “the market for employee benefits”. I was fully convinced that it will help foster a better understanding of the employee benefits plan and drive better satisfaction as a result of the ability to customize the plan to suit individual needs and lifestyles.

I was at a conference last week, where I was a part of a panel discussion. One of the questions posed to me was “How does having a flexible benefits system affect the engagement levels of employees?”

Typically, research shows that pay / benefits do not feature as a top driver of engagement – they affect engagement, but other factors assume higher priority when it comes to engagement. However, pay / benefits are critical drivers of talent attraction and retention. But, I do feel that a flexible benefits system, as opposed to a traditional benefits plan, would also affect engagement.

In a flexi-benefits programs, the role of employees evolves. From being passive recipients of a standardized, mundane plan, employees become active decision-makers in a flexi-benefits system. It helps to build that sense of autonomy, of empowerment, of ownership. And that does have a positive rub-off effect on engagement, attraction and retention. Overall, I feel that a flexi-benefits system is a great way to differentiate your employee value proposition and compete better in the marketplace for talent.

Have you implemented a flexi-benefits system? What has been your experience?

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