New year. New trends.
What will the crystal ball tell us?
What’s going on in the small HR world?

 
1. HR is not alone (anymore)

Well, in case you didn’t notice it yet, HR has never been alone but always behaved as if it was the case.  From the top of their Ivory Tower, HR people built complex systems, absurd rules, inefficient processes that could make Kafka really jealous of them.
Why talking about a Business Partner role if HR had been in touch with all the parts of the organisation (top, bottom, peers, stakeholders,  core or support business …)? What if they would have developed their strategy following the stakeholders management principles?

So, dear HR people, develop your skills! Go beyond the “HR only” knowledge. Connect with your colleagues. Learn from your Marketing, ICT, Finance, Logistics, Communication, Real Estate peers. What skills or methodology can they teach you?
It’s now time to get a holistic management function.

2.    Happiness at work

Happiness at work is a mega trend.
Do you doubt?

According to surveys and scientists, Happy Employees are 6 times less absent, twice less sick, 9 times more loyal, 55% more creative, etc. Happy employees make happy customers who become happy ambassadors of your products / services.
Dear HR people, your role is not to manage human resources (ugly mission, isn’t it?). Your role is to create the conditions that make people happy and performing well (or better) at work. Become a Chief Happiness Officer and spread happiness around you. And then, celebrate the successes of this change of mind!

By the way, the 1st International Happiness Day is on March 20.
Do you join us?
http://www.happinessday.be
Twitter : @BEhpd
Facebook : http://www.facebook.com/happinessdayBE
LinkedIn : http://www.linkedin.com/groups/HappyatWork-4681187?trk=myg_ugrp_ovr
#BEhappyday

3.    Your team is a SME

Act the way you would run a SME organisation :
– Your employees are your customers.
– Spend your budget as it was your money.
– Develop back up within your team
– Turn your team into a agile one: resilient to problem, turning every crisis into opportunities, not complaining but innovating.
– Control facts (not people) when controlling has an added value

Dear HR people, organise yourself just as you would organise your own small company, not an anonymous part of a big bad company.

4.    Wise leadership

Develop a new generation of leaders, enhancing a new set of skills: self-awareness, courage, inspiration, compassion, holistic view, reframing, questioning, getting a sense of vocation, celebrating diversity, sharing a positive mindset, optimistic, connecting people, trusting, without ego, shining not brilliant, being a resource for her/his team, taking sustainable decisions, …

Dear HR people, be this role model the best as you can. Leading by example gives you strength and increases your credibility.

5.    KISSSS

Stop with useless systems / processes / rules. What’s your added value towards the organisation? Focus on it, outsource / delegate / stop the rest.
Dear HR people, keep things simple, sexy, sustainable, straight-forward, shareable.
And make things funny too. Fun doesn’t mean Stupid. Time flies if you have fun at work. Learn about gamification before developing a new process or a new rule.

6.    Your brand new friends: Big Data, SaaS, BYOD

You have to manage to many data? You suffer from “infobesity”? You can’t deal anymore with the candidates or employees’ request regarding their (smart)phones, laptop, … You’re not alone.
And this is why you have to rely on providers of Big Data Management (crunching data to deliver you with the best of the knowledge, providing you with useful key performance indicators, setting up attractive reporting).

This is why you and your IT colleagues have to work on Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy. Employees are using their own devices (smartphone, laptop, …) respecting corporate use of it and being utmost happy to have efficient tools answering their need

This is why you can rely on Software as a Service (SaaS) providers to support you with your talent management, your performance review processes, to keep your competency management system (if any) easy to work and performing well.

7.    Working from… Everywhere

Working from home is yet a reality for a part of the knowledge workers. Hopefully this percentage tends to growth each year and the acceptance from the employers is bigger each year. Less commuting, less work accident, less stress, more focus, more productivity, a better life / work balance.
Next step is to work from everywhere: train, plane, co-working spaces, customers premises, home, beach, …
Workplace is where wi-fi is. Even for you!

8.    HRM20

Repeat after me: “Social media is good for me” “Social media is good for my organisation”.  Do you agree with the following statement : “Collaboration increases productivity”?  Then starts to think about something else than teambuilding activities to increase collaboration within your team.  Allow the use of social media and collaborative platforms at work (facebook, twitter, linkedin, instagram, youtube, .yammer, …).

Dear HR people, don’t be afraid of social media. Use them to support your HR strategy: 2.0 recruitment, 2.0 training, 2.0 communication, 2.0 knowledge management, 2.0 reporting, 2.0 community management, …

9.    Neuronal organisation

More than ever, organisations fight for talents. More than ever organisation in silo’s are the most likely to die soon or soon. And organisations usually forget they already hired plenty of talents. Give people opportunities to use their capabilities.

Talent management  = opportunity X motivation X capabilities.

Talents don’t belong to bosses! Always remember your employees are adults (child employment is usually forbidden). Let them free of choosing their targets that help the organisation to achieve its objectives.

Offer people the opportunity to jump into multi-skills projects. Don’t appoint them as volunteers.
Offer people the opportunity to work for a defined period of time on other kind of assignments, in another department, in another organisation.
Offer people the opportunity to develop their employability, their agility, their acceptance to change. They will be much more resilient to (potential) crisis.

10. We love People

Yes, there is a financial crisis. Again.
Yes, there is an economic downturn. Again.
Yes, it’s hard. Again.
Yes, we have to be cautious. Again.

And we still work with people!
And we still work to produce sustainable value!
And we still have to fight to make our future a better one!

It’s crisis time. Do we need to be afraid?
Do we really solve issues by firing more people to ensure a higher profit?
When we take decisions, how hard they can be, always remember that we are impacting someone’s life. We’re impacting families’ balance.

Decisions can be hard.
Communication must always be respectful, supportive and constructive.
We don’t manage people. We love people.
Don’t manage. Love.

 

Goodbye 2012!

Welcome 2013!

 

In 2012, my trends were the following:

1. Social media
2. KiSSSification
3. HR is dead, long live People Management
4. Happiness & Performance
5. Trust
6. Nwow
7. CSR
8. MaRHketing
9. CO-
10. Don’t Manage. Love
As you can notice, some trends are new.
Some are the same, just because some organisations / HR people aren’t yet there.
Some have been amplified because they are so important.
Whatever could be these trends, one thing is certain: HR has to change, as the rest of world is also changing.

Anyway, my wish for you in 2013 is to be happier and to spread happiness around you. Because even HR people are worth it 🙂