Learn how organizations and sales structures are changing and aligning strategy, people, behaviors, and goals to meet their targets in 2020 with Findley’s Tom Hurley and Dan Simovic.
Over the past few months, our clients have been talking about sales incentives. The pandemic has disrupted the marketplace, forcing organizations to rethink their business development strategies, revisit sales goals and incentives, and potentially restructure the sales organization. It is primetime to get serious about sales compensation planning and design. It’s about more than “best practices”. It’s about “best thinking” based upon changes in the market and how your organization can adapt to the sales function. The topics include:
After all these years, it turns out that engagement surveys may not be all that organizations want them to be. Don’t blame the survey; it does its job to collect data. That data can drive significant change when there’s an action plan. If there’s no action plan, reconsider issuing the next engagement survey.
For decades, organizations have used engagement surveys as a tool to help improve productivity, and attract and retain employees. Increasing profitability is the common goal of pinpointing areas of concern and resolving the issues. The challenge is not often in facilitating the survey or identifying areas needing improvement; the struggle is developing an action plan and addressing the underlying problems. That is where many organizations fail.
According to Leadership IQ (a leadership training and research firm), more than 3,000 respondents to an online quiz indicate that nearly 60% of companies are not taking meaningful action on the data from their employee engagement surveys. In our experience, Findley consultants recognize that identifying issues is the easy part of surveys.
Driving organizational change is tough.
Without getting into finite detail, the output of survey results can be grouped into several categories: culture, work-life, leadership, management, rewards, communication, career path, learning and development. There are many challenges in addressing such broad topics with a survey, including:
Were the appropriate questions asked?
When negative responses are provided by employees, an expectation has been set that problems will be fixed. Will corrections be made?
Generally, there are multiple root drivers for getting low scores. Does the survey provide enough data on where the problems reside?
Those assigned to address problem areas are often the people associated with the low scores. Should an independent resource contribute to the development of a solution?
How balanced is the approach to addressing issues? Does employee feedback carry all of the weight or are management’s voices considered, as those may offer differing opinions than those expressed by the employees?
Over-reaction is as bad as indifference or being slow to act. It can lead to rash piecemeal corrections without a holistic plan for improvement. How are survey results addressed?
Surveys by themselves will not fully define or solve
organizational issues; they can contribute to identifying some negative areas
in the organization, but the challenge remains for leadership to address the
noted issues of concern. Moreover, improving employee satisfaction scores to
higher levels does not always correlate to improved business results. Our
experience shows some organizations that have high engagement scores do not
carry that success into business performance. A balanced approach is needed to
connect people and business expectations; organizations need to progress beyond
surveys.
Engagement surveys are one piece of the equation. Similar to online candidate assessments used in recruiting, they are not the definitive answer, rather surveys are tools to measure critical areas. They become data points to be considered.
Aside from engagement surveys, companies should look at the big picture and manage to an ideal state. From Findley’s experience, the most successful organizations have this core characteristics framework which connects their people and business strategy:
Effective leadership which formally includes a people strategy within its business plan
Trained managers who use effective goal setting, provide ongoing feedback and support their employees
Clear job expectations, competency standards and organizational structure which supports each employee’s work needs
A performance culture which fosters open communication and supports challenges to the status quo
Issues are addressed as they happen, they do not linger and become chronic
An indoctrination and learning strategy connected to clear career paths
Defined rewards strategy (base, incentive, other benefits/perks) tied to performance
These are the day-to-day fundamentals, the blocking and tackling of management and leadership that drives retention, engagement and business growth. For many organizations, however, this stated framework is not ingrained in the company’s culture. Instead, they focus on symptoms found in the survey data, spending too much time on the granular points versus tending to broader core success factors.
Too often, department heads or individual managers are tasked with the follow up activity required to fix low scores. Meanwhile, the core issues reside with the broader organizational strategy and operations decisions and therefore, are rarely corrected satisfactorily.
Before performing the next engagement survey and assessing the data, step back and consider what will be done with the findings. Determine how the core characteristics of successful organizations can be incorporated into the action plan.
Questions regarding how to develop an innovative HR strategy or assess your current HR function or talent, contact the Findley consultant you normally work with, or Dan Simovic at dan.simovic@findley.com, 216.875.1917.
The right mix of
technology, artificial intelligence and the human element is a differentiator.
With the coming of Artificial Intelligence
(AI) and broader uses of technology, HR professionals will be challenged to
manage and humanize HR systems to achieve their objectives. AI is the
ability of a computer program or a machine to think and learn. Call it what you
will, HR Technology (HRIS, HRMS, HCM) are here to stay.
Steven Hawking once said that “Unless we learn how to prepare for, and avoid, the
potential risks, AI could be the worst event in the history of our
civilization.”
HR is Already Using Artificial Intelligence and Leveraging Technology
Many experts
predict that AI will replace jobs involving repetitive or basic problem-solving
tasks, and even go beyond current human ability. AI systems will make HR decisions
instead of professionals in industrial settings, customer service and other
interactive roles.
Likewise, Human Resources technology and AI
are used increasingly in every facet of the organization’s employment lifecycle
as listed below.
Employers use social media to brand their companies
and attract candidates
Applicant Tracking Systems technology improves HR
professional’s recruiting and hiring efficiency and productivity
Screening technologies, such as video
interviews, assessments or automated scheduling/screening help to vet
candidates
Technologies have automated several HR-related
tasks such as employee onboard processing, employee benefit elections and
processing retirements
Performance management systems track individual
performance and link that performance to company results
Employee engagement surveys, and 360 feedback
systems capture the employee perspective
Training modules are distributed to employees
and their utilization tracked via learning management technology systems
Compensation data surveys and cloud-based technology
tools are available to compensation professionals that subscribe to them
Today many employee or prospective employee interactions are
not with a human being. Instead, leveraging AI in HR, candidates apply for a
job to an automated HR system, have an initial online screening, interview via
video and through conversational job matching, are assessed to determine if
they are talent worthy of further consideration. The assumption is that these HR
software solutions are faster, more accurate and cost-effective at selecting
the best talent.
How has the Human
Resources Professional’s Role Changed?
Businesses that are late adopters of
technology will be left behind. In today’s competitive market your speed to
attract, hire, manage, develop and reward your talent is a key success factor.
As we have seen in the marketplace, organizations that are lacking in this
space have higher employee turnover and lower productivity. They are not
meeting the needs of today’s generation which require immediate capability to
engage and transact certain activities. Organizations using traditional HR approaches
and software solutions struggle to land and keep top talent.
Human Resources professionals will need to
significantly adapt and add new skills beyond being people experts. HR teams
will need to develop a stronger understanding of systems, process and data
analytics). We see this movement in the world of professional sports where data
analytics augments identifying top talent. Businesses are slowly following this
AI trend and are beginning to reap the benefits.
Building Your Next Generation HR
Team
One of the best innovators in hiring today
is a company called Catalyte. In fact, Catalyte’s mission states: “Catalyte advances human potential for the
digital economy. We use artificial intelligence to identify individuals,
regardless of background, who have the innate potential and cognitive ability
to be great software developers.”
Catalyte uses AI to review candidates for
pure ability – not experience – and then builds skills through a strong
apprentice and training program. The organization looks for raw talent and molds
that talent to develop the computer programming skills they need to succeed.
Is your HR team combining innovative technology with raw human skill to build your workforce for the future? What kind of HR talent do you need to create and lead this kind of approach?
In larger organizations, where resources may be more plentiful, the focus of systems, process and data analytics may be assigned to specific departments. In smaller organizations everyone shares the burden of addressing these AI areas. Irrespective of the size of the organization or the specific role, HR professionals will need to build their technical acumen and become the conduit to building a workforce for the future.
After all, even AI uses algorithms built
off of desired outcomes, as identified and input by human experts. Therefore, HR
teams today require a mix of both art and science.
Questions regarding how to develop an innovative HR strategy or assess your current HR function or talent, contact the Findley consultant you normally work with, or Dan Simovic at dan.simovic@findley.com, 216.875.1917.
