Here’s what employees want from HR system.

In an environment that is increasingly short of qualified talent, understanding the role of HR and HR systems is important to keep the new generation of employees engaged

 

By 2025, around 75%  of the global workforce will have grown up in a digital world. What happens when companies can’t pursue market opportunities or have to delay strategic initiatives because they don’t have the talented people they need to execute plans? The cold, hard truth is that they can’t compete, foster and grow.

Employees and candidates today want a work environment that provides a great experience. To deliver this expectation, modern HR must move away from HR services that aren’t designed to make employees enthusiastic. Instead, the focus must be placed on a model based on scale, efficiency, effectiveness and convenience so that employees can choose when and how to engage.

Most millennials have grown up with instant access to Facebook, Google, and Amazon. When they start new jobs, their expectations of the systems and tools they will use professionally are already hardwired from their experiences as digitally native consumers. While most CEOs are quick to say their employees are the company’s most valuable asset, many are failing to provide HR teams with the tools they need to ensure the best workers are able to perform to their full potential. To meet this requirement, HR systems need to be the following:

Usable: Instead of sending multiple emails back and forth, employees want applications that are as intuitive as Facebook.

Desirable: Employees want clean and easy-to-use interfaces, along with the ability to gain instant feedback from the application and find exactly the information they need when they need it. Instead of a model based on scale and efficiency, modern HR must be designed for effectiveness and convenience so that employees can choose when and how to engage. Employees want to choose the time, place, and channel to interact with HR.

Accessible: HR has commonly delivered employee services based on standard processes that are accessible only in person or by phone during office hours. HR services weren’t designed to make employees enthusiastic about HR or reward them with an engaging experience. Today’s employees wantaccessibility 24/7, from the office, the coffee shop, or the shop floor.

Valuable: Employees feel rewarded when they make smart decisions that impact their livelihoods. For example, just as retail websites use purchase histories to suggest other products, modern HR systems should track employee activities to suggest training.

The #1 reason HR leaders choose a new HR system is to improve the user experience. Modern HR enables stakeholders and clients to help themselves and connect as part of a community. In a survey conducted by Cedar Crestone, HR systems that have implemented an easy-to-use, complete human capital management systems are regarded as twice as effective and efficient as those that don’t offer this advantage.

Using such systems allows executives to transform HR from a system of record to a system of engagement that delivers consumer-level experiences that treat employees the way savvy brands treat their customers.

 

 

Source: People Matters

Date: 23^rd January, 2017

“HR analytics: The next frontier”

Enterprises can tap the mountains of data they capture to foster new ways of decision making in hiring

If you are looking to embark on the human resources (HR) analytics journey, look no further than the good old recruitment process.

Once the process starts, recruiters use the recruitment brief and their judgement to shortlist candidates for interviews. Firms typically have huge amounts of historical data on employees who have performed well and those who have not. This clustering of employees can serve as a benchmark in selecting new ones. Top employees outperform average employees by up to eight times, so historical data has great potential.

The interview process has various stages and there are dropouts in every stage. The questions to be asked are: what stage sees the most dropouts and why? Is it due to of low compensation figures, or is the process is taking too long? If low compensation is the reason, what is the delta that will lead to better salary elasticity?

Among those that are hired many drop out in the first six months. The questions here are: what made them quit, and how can the firm identify the kind who are likely to leave soon?

These questions indicate how data-led approaches can help transform the recruitment process. There are opportunities that lead either to process improvements—the domain of efficiency—or to better HR decisions—the domain of effectiveness. An analysis by McKinsey and Co. found recruitment efficiency can be improved up to 80%.

Enterprises can tap the mountains of data they capture to foster new ways of decision making. For instance, the increasing availability of employee data in core IT applications is stimulating a fact-based approach to improve HR decisions.

While the nature of applications of data varies according to enterprises, HR data is mainly being used to describe the state of HR metrics through simple statistical analysis; to construct statistical and machine learning models that lead to predictions and extract drivers that explain the phenomenon being modelled; and to deploy strategies to gauge the efficacy of the extant HR practice at enterprises.

Drivers of HR analytics

Before getting into the nuts and bolts of HR analytics solutions, we should perhaps acknowledge that data and human behaviour could work at cross purposes—just like oil and water. Besides, motivations that drive behaviour are intangible—they can’t be easily quantified.

That said, one can get surprisingly better insights should one have access to longitudinal data. Having longer, time-series data, as it turns out, allows us to have a better stab at the problem. Since the data generation process continues as long as an employee remains in active engagement, access to data per se is not an issue. Moreover, statistical models are adept at identifying changes in employee behaviour over time.

While there are certain HR problems that currently do not have a satisfactory solution within the existing management practices, HR departments can address many of the problems with data-led solutions.

Profiling and segmentation

Segmentation can be performed to isolate groups of employees with similar metrics. Identifying cohorts of ‘similar’ employees reflects common performance drivers, characteristics and priorities. Each of these clusters can be explored with heat-maps and business metrics to derive the underlying narrative of the corresponding segments. The lessons derived from segmentation can be applied to effectively hire new employees and answer questions as to how long is an employee, on average, likely to stay.

Performance prediction

Performance targets, especially for large enterprises and publicly-held companies, are so tightly intertwined with the broader stakeholder expectations that any misalignment or fall-back in performance can have considerable material implication. Prediction of the performance of front-line sales people is necessary for forecasting business throughput. Managers can use predictions in creative ways. For example, if the gap between performance and targets is expected to be large, other instruments such as advertisement and promotion or sales incentives can be introduced.

Attrition

Employee churn is a fairly costly proposition for employers. Losing well-performing employees, acclimatised to the cultural moorings of the enterprise, is a concern. Also, higher employee churn invariably leads to escalation in costs in the form of new hiring, raising compensation levels, increased transactions and loss in productivity.

Predictive models can assist not only in identifying those who are likely to quit but also when they might. Employees who score high on the performance index and high on churn probabilities are the obvious candidates for attrition intervention programmes. With statistical techniques such as ‘Design of Experiments’, the intervention programmes can be optimised to deliverlower employee churn.

Offer rejection

Given that filling a new position or a replacement invariably takes time, coupledwith the waiting period between the offer acceptance and joining date, a dropout is bound to cost both time and money. This has a cascading impact especially in delivery-oriented or revenue-generating roles, and offer rejections can at times set back business plans. Predictive solutions can identify specific individual-level likelihood of a dropout, thus allowing the HR team to follow up with suitable actions—resulting in superior conversion rates.

As technology and analytics occupy centre stage in business set-ups, firms slow in adopting technology and building analytics capabilities, risk lagging behind in the market place. The best firms see their employees not only as individuals but also as a rich source of collective data that can be used to make better talent decisions.

Source: Live Mint

Date: 23rd January, 2017

Changes to Employment Verification Discrimination Rule Take Effect Jan. 18

Employers can be charged with discrimination even without intent to harm

Employers will be open to more discrimination charges based on national origin or citizenship during the employment verification process after a new regulation takes effect Jan. 18.

In the new regulation, the Department of Justice (DOJ) clarified that treating a worker differently when requesting documents during the employment verification process, regardless of whether the intent is to harm or help, will be prohibited. The department revised its rule enforcing the Immigration and Nationality Act’s anti-discrimination provision by redefining discrimination as “the act of intentionally treating an individual differently from other individuals because of national origin or citizenship status, regardless of the explanation for such differential treatment, and regardless of whether such treatment is because of animus or hostility.”

“Since 1990, employers have been prohibited from requesting more or different documents or rejecting valid documents during the employment verification process,” said Amy Peck, an attorney in the Omaha, Neb., office of Jackson Lewis. That includes asking new hires to provide specific documents from the documents list on the Form I-9, rather than letting each person present the documents of his or her choosing.

“With the newly amended regulations, it is clear that in the I-9 process, including the E-Verify process, an employer can be guilty of prohibited discrimination on the basis of citizenship status or national origin even if it is simply trying to be helpful,” Peck said. “In other words, while an employer’s motives might be benign or even if the employer is simply trying to help its employees, disparate treatment is prohibited.”

Prior to the revision, the DOJ could not effectively pursue charges against employers if hiring practices were considered discriminatory but not carried out with intent to harm.

The final rule also expands the prohibition on discrimination based on national origin or citizenship beyond the I-9 process. The rule will now apply to the E-Verify process and even to onboarding.

“In light of these new rules, all employers should examine their hiring policies, which must absolutely include employment verification protocols, and they should do so with a perspective that [the DOJ] is monitoring activity from recruitment all the way through onboarding,” said Kevin Lashus, an attorney with the law firm FisherBroyles in Austin, Texas.

The regulation change could result in more investigations and charges and higher penalties as President-elect Donald Trump’s administration is poised to focus on immigration enforcement, and because fines for immigration-related workplace violations were recently increased.

 

Source: SHRM

Date: 13^th Jan, 2017

Promotions Preferred to Pay Raises, Professionals Say

Most think promotions should happen every 2-3 years

For most professionals, getting promoted—even without immediately receiving a larger paycheck—is preferable to receiving a pay raise without a promotion.

Career advancement remains one of the strongest signs for salaried employees that they are appreciated and valued—and moving forward at work—although a promotion and pay raise would, assuredly, be even better. And if pay isn’t increased eventually, promoted employees are likely to seek employment elsewhere.
Nevertheless, results released in January from a survey fielded last fall by consultancy Korn Ferry, with responses from 1,200 professionals worldwide, found that nearly two-thirds of respondents (63 percent) would prefer to get a promotion with no salary increase than a salary increase with no promotion.

Studies show the overwhelming importance of recognition in driving employees’ job satisfaction, said Dennis Baltzley, Korn Ferry senior partner and the firm’s global head of leadership development. To retain their best talent, he noted, organizations “need to put development and clear career-pathing plans in place, not just for top leaders but for those across the organization.”

While 39 percent of survey respondents received a promotion within the last year, 45 percent expect to receive a promotion this year.

The importance of promotions in regard to the gender pay gap was revealed in another study, which found that 20 percent of women believe that gender has contributed to a missed promotion or raise.

Show Employees How to Climb the Job Ladder

Organizations can benefit from creating clear advancement opportunities for professionals. The survey found, for instance, that among respondents who were not promoted over the past 12 months:

• More than half (56 percent) cited “bottleneck or nowhere to go” as the main reason.
• Nearly one-fifth (19 percent) said office politics got in the way of their moving up the ladder.

The vast majority (88 percent) said that if they wanted a promotion, the No. 1 action they would take would be to have a conversation with their supervisor and identify growth areas that would enable them to move into the next role. If passed over for a promotion, 84 percent said the top action they would take would be to identify the reason and work to improve.

Conversations about career advancement “should start early on and include details on the exact key performance indicators that need to be achieved to earn a promotion, and there should be regular meetings to ensure progress is being made,” said Peter Keseric, a managing consultant at Korn Ferry Futurestep, the consultancy’s executive search and recruitment unit.

When asked on average how long they should stay in a role before being promoted, the No. 1 response (38 percent) was 2-3 years.

“The key is ongoing development and feedback to ensure the professional is ready to take on added responsibility in a role,” Baltzley said. “Knowing that a promotion is a possibility is an excellent way to retain top talent.”

 

Source: SHRM

 

 

“Five Traits of Effective HR Leaders”

Over the last 15 years, I’ve tracked many Global HR Heads from the time they were HR Managers, and in that time I’ve also seen a number of HR graduates rise to run entire regions.

I’ve always found it interesting when I stop to consider what was it about these HR leaders that helped them succeed in some of the largest and toughest, evolving roles anywhere.

Here are five traits I think have contributed to their success:

Have humility

It may sound obvious, but fast-rising HR leaders are great humans. They look to make a connection, and because of that, they are respected by the business, their HR colleagues, their direct teams as well as their leaders. They keep their egos checked. They are excellent listeners and offer solid advice, but only after understanding the problem. In a nutshell, these talented individuals are almost always universally respected.

Possess an intellectual curiosity

Rising HR leaders are widely read and welcome many views and opinions. They are not complacent with the “old ways” of managing HR issues and actively seek innovative solutions. A key strength is their desire to understand the business unit, their competitors, and the industry as a whole. They embrace change with a keen focus on transformative capabilities.

Create the change

I’ve watched many HR leaders grow impatient for the next “big” opportunity, which leads to disengagement and an overall dissatisfaction with their role and company. However, the type of HR talent who gets promoted—dare I say, headhunted—don’t allow themselves to become restless; they understand that there is always a lot to do. They create their own career development opportunities by proactively orienting themselves towards new projects, specialist areas or business exposure. They develop resilience through change and maintain a strong focus on constant learning and finding new ways to add value.

It’s not about the money

The brightest HR stars rarely chase the dollar; it’s about the opportunity. In fact, sometimes, I’ve seen top HR talent fall behind the market median based on their skillsets or talents. However, over time, be it within their company or on the open market, their hard work pays off and their pay reflects their capabilities. Rarely have I seen the exception.

Seek good mentors

I’ve noticed that the best HR talent intuitively seek out strong mentors, either within the profession or within the business, and sometimes outside of their companies. If they’re lucky, they may find a mentor in their direct bosses. But, what I find most intriguingly is that these HR leaders don’t look for just one mentor. Instead, they have multiple mentors, each providing different qualities that inspire and teach.

For all the analytics, data, and available HR-related technology, it’s actually the human side that remains the most important trait when it comes to HR leadership—or, perhaps, any form of professional leadership. HR is about building lasting relationships that are based on enabling others to do their jobs better.

Exceptional HR leaders know this and are capable of delivering high-impact, high-value results that affect change. And equally important, HR leaders who exhibit these traits illustrate an intrinsic understanding of what the business needs and the employees want. They are able to reconcile the inherent professional and commercial tension to stay modern while at the same time accentuate the human side of their role to the benefit of their organisations.

The future of HR is different, but it is also bright.

 

Source: BOSS Magazine

Date: 10^th January, 2017

Edelweiss hikes maternity leave

The Edelweiss Group has extended paid maternity leave staff can take to 26 weeks from the current 12, as it seeks to increase the representation of women in workforce and stop high-potential female employees from leaving the company. The financial conglomerate has also increased adoption leave benefits for female employees to 12 weeks, three times what they previously got.

Twenty-six weeks of maternity leave will be given to women for the first two children,said Kalpana Ajayan, head of strategic human resources. For more than two children, the leave duration will be 12 weeks. For adoption, 12 weeks of maternity leave will be granted if the child is below the age of three months. Those who use surrogates to bear a child will also get the same benefits as in adoption.

Edelweiss has introduced a programme to ensure that more women come up the pyramid. It aims to increase the share of women in its total headcount to 30% over fiveyears from the current 19%.

 

Source: Economic Times

Date : 9^th January 2017

TRENDS FOR 2017 HR experts unveil the top HR trends for 2017

The world is changing at a dizzying pace. Here’s what we can look forward to in 2017,with regards to HR practices. Margaret D’Souza, head HR,Directi

1 The shift from annual to periodic performance review:

2017 will see companies doing away with the grading and rating system and moving to a regular discussion and feedback approach.

2 Use of technology:

Organisations are constantly looking for ways to automate and introduce technologies to connect with employees.

3 Increase in HR analytics to make decisions:

More emphasis on data to better understand employees. Rituparna  Chakraborty , president, Indian Staffing Federation

4 Interintra collaboration:

Siloed style of working shall make way for a collaborative approach in organisations.

5 New workplaces:

Work (out) places,working from home, pop up workplaces would come into prominence.6 Dynamic knowledge ecosystem: Organisations shall move away from the appraisal culture to a continuous feedback culture focused around mentoring. Samriti Malhotra, associate VP, global HRD, Denave 7 Digitisation and people analytics:

HR decision making will be abetted through ‘people analytics’.8 A culture of flexibility:

Year 2017 will augment the shift in organisational architecture.

9 Talent attraction and retention:

Businesses will continuously attempt to strengthen employee engagement through relationship management. Kannika Sagar, chief people officer,HCL Infosystems

10 Empowered employees:

Companies will provide more self-assessment opportunities.

11 Measuring engagement real-time:

Companies are espousing use of digital employee engagement tools.

12 Enhanced employee experience:

HR is enhancing employee experience through improved work spaces.Bradley Loiselle, CEO,betterU

13 Regular upgradation of employees’ skills:

E-learning is being adopted by the corporate sector for training of employees.

14 Controlling attrition:

The most agile and swift way to retain employees is by giving the employees a reason to stay beyond their salaries.1

5 Data-driven recruitment:

Employers will be looking at a seamless way to connect all the employee data,from sourcing to hiring.Naresh Kumar Pinisetti, president HR,Deepak Fertilisers and Petrochemicals Corporation

16 Encouraging employees to learn:

Continuous learning based on exposure, environment, education and experience would be more widely used.

17 Increased use of social media for recruitment:

Social media will continue to pay an increasingly important role in attracting talent.

 

Source:-The Times of India-Mumbai

Date:-4th Jan,2017-Mumbai

ITI Reinsurance gets final Irdai nod to begin operations, SCOR to begin business by Apr1

Regulator Irdai has granted the certificate of registration to ITI Reinsurance, which will be the first domestic private sector reinsurer, according to a senior company official.

Sun Pharma huncho Sudhir Valia is the promoter of the ITI Insurance.

“We have been granted R3 approval by Irdai. We have already brought in a substantial part of the required capital of Rs 500 crore to kick off operations and the balance amount will be brought in by March,” ITI Re chief operating officer R Raghavan told PTI today.

“To begin with, we will focus on general insurance and later on we will start reinsuring life insurance,” he said, adding “we will begin with 2,000 staff.”

Last week, Irdai had granted R3 approvals to five global reinsurers to set up their branches in the country. They include US-based reinsurer Reinsurance Group of America (RGA), Munich Re and Hannover from Germany, Swiss Re from Switzerland and French reinsurance major Scor.

SCOR has said that the company has received the authorisation to open a Composite Branch Office in India and will underwrite Life and P&C reinsurance business, said a press release of SCOR.

.Denis Kessler, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of SCOR, commented: “Receiving the R3 authorisation from the IRDAI to establish a SCOR branch in India marks a milestone for the Group in terms of solidifying its presence in the country, where it has enjoyed strong business relationships for many years. Our local team will be ready to provide business solutions to our Indian clients as of the 1 April 2017 renewals.”

SCOR has been writing business with Indian clients since 1973, having opened a liaison office in India in 2005. The establishment of a SCOR branch in 2016 demonstrates the Group’s commitment to the Indian market and to the continued provision of services to its clients in the country.

The state-owned GIC Re is the only reinsurance company in the country today. The reinsurance market is estimated to be at around USD 2.5 billion.

Irdai had also granted the R2 approval to another global reinsurer XL Catlin and the London-based specialized reinsurer Lloyds and R1 approval to Gen Re (part of Berkshire Hathaway of Warren Buffet).

Source:-Asia Insurance Post

Date:-31^st December,2016

“Want to shine at job? Talk less, listen more and dress well”

A new job, a different role and bigger responsibilities can mark the beginning of a major career transition, especially if it’s a dream project that you had been eyeing. It is important to prepare oneself in order to avoid being overwhelmed by change.

Abilities and strengths can help overcome the fear and nervousness of being a newbie.Having self­confidence will not only help you perform your business tasks efficiently but will empower you to become a well ­rounded individual. There are specific ways to increase self­confidence at your workplace and make every day even more productive than yesterday.

Here are seven important tips to keep those rattling nerves at bay, ease the fear of uncertainties, and feel confident in your new job:

­ Prepare Before You Turn Up
Research is the key to any job as much as it is a new project or assignment. Know your company well, its stakeholder, products, and most importantly, its culture. The first few days in the office is going to be about orientation and a blur of names, rules, HR formalities and regulations. Give yourself a bit of a head start by reading the company website followed by its LinkedIn page. Get to know the company values by researching about the top management and the board of directors through published material on the Internet. Ask your manager to share study material, case studies, client briefs etc. with you.

Talk Less, Listen More
When in team meetings listen more and imbibe the knowledge imparted. Take notes during meetings and do not hesitate to ask questions. Keep the questions short and make a note of the answers you get to the questions. While your opinionmatters during part of group discussions and brainstorming sessions emphasise listening over speaking. The most rookie mistake that people make during their first few days in a company is to come under the impulse of “taking the stage,” of speaking before the other one could say what he intends to or very often say something generic and clichéd without giving any actual insight.

­ Be Polite to Support Staff
Office administration or the support staff is the backbone of any organisation. It becomes absolutely imperative for you to be warm and nice to them. This staff is your best bet to understand the office atmosphere best and make your transition in a new environment smooth. In a non-­technical environment, support staff is usually the one who helps an employee adjust to the applications used, processes followed, supported by periodical assistance and instruction.

­ Dress for Success
When moving to a new organisation, it is important to understand culture and dress accordingly. It is not only important to wear what is followed by code, but it is important to look the part that you are hired for. Do not over­dress or under­dress. This could have a negative influence on your employer and team members and could even overshadow your efficiency and personality. Grooming is a part of any workplace. Whether your office follows a formal dress code orcasual dressing, being well­-kept is key to making a good impression.

­ Volunteer
Take a fresh look at your company’s programmes by volunteering in projects and assignments. Volunteer to do a little grunt work and do something other people don’t want to do. It creates an avenue to network and even helps establish connect with those who are not from your department. Apart from enjoying the social aspect of being part of a group initiative, it also helps you gain perspective into the workings of an organisation. Your contribution and intelligence will be measured and that will help you gain the respect of your peers and bosses, which, in turn, will make you feel a lot more confident.

­ Be Confident, Not Over­Confident
If you don’t have confidence in yourself to understand your abilities and the value you add, it could be holding you back from reaching your full potential. At the same time, over­confidence, also termed as ‘star sickness’, presupposes that we are absolutely pleased with ourselves which means that there is no need to grow. Star sickness lowers the level of self­criticism. It seems to you that you make everything ideally. You just do not have any shortcomings!

­ Ask for Help
Many people feel asking for help is a sign of weakness. That’s especially true when you don’t feel confident. The secret is asking the right person the right question. Find that person in your team or organisation who is willing to help. You may assume talking to your supervisor or boss may not be the best idea, but that’s often not your best course of action.

When you are starting new at a job, instead of anticipating and projecting, stay in the moment. Focus on the task at hand, if you attend to the building blockswhich is the learning processes, getting to know your team, then everythingelse will fall into place.

 

Source: The Economic Times

Date: 30th December, 2016