Thinking about the Future of Work

In a few weeks I'll be heading to New York City to attend and co-present along with Trish McFarlane at the Conference Board's Senior Human Resources Executive Conference. The Senior Human Resources Conference this year has as its theme The Future of Work: Growth, Innovation, and People.

Sort of an ambitious set of topics to take on over two short days, but as always The Conference Board has organized a phenomenal set of sessions presented by a cross-section of  the most accomplished Human Resources leaders from some of the world's largest organizations. Just a few of the companies that will be presenting their perspectives, philosophies, and strategies for adapting to this new world of work are Nike, Pitney Bowes, Abbott Laboratories, Boeing, American Express, and more. 

So despite the challenge of taking on a subject as lofty and potentially theoretical as 'The Future of Work', the quality and diversity of the sessions and the expertise of the collection of senior Human Resources leaders in attendance all but ensures that the discussions and knowledge sharing will be equal parts insightful and practical. The Senior Human Resources Conference has a justified reputation for assembling a group of the profession's top leaders and presenting engaging and relevant content to the attendees. And this time, with all of the sessions designed to give attendees insights into how work is changing, and how leading companies are innovating, improving and developing their organizations to compete in the next decade; the conference is shaping up to be a can't miss event.

This reputation for excellence makes me feel honored that The Conference Board has invited Trish and I to present a conference session titled 'How Social Tools Can Empower a Global Organization'. Trish and I plan to talk about how social networks, social technologies, and changing attitudes towards engagement, interaction, and connection are impacting and transforming how organizations communicate and engage with employees, candidates, and customers. We hope to get past the surface layer, and dig a little deeper into what these senior HR leaders should be thinking about as they consider how social tools can and will change the way traditional HR gets done inside organizations.

It's a big topic and it's an important one too, and while Trish and I won't profess to have all the answers, I am pretty confident the discussions with the assembled leaders in attendance will help all of us learn a little bit more from each other.

Trish and I hope you’ll consder joining us in New York, NY on November 15- 16, 2011 for two full days of sessions.  There will be tracks on HR Strategies and Issues, HR Management and Process and one on Talent and Leadership.  You can join the Conference on LinkedIn, using the following link: Senior HR Executive Conference on LinkedIn or on Facebook, using the following link: Senior HR Executive Conference on facebook

We’ll also be tweeting from the event using hashtag #tcbsrhr.

Now the best part, if you do decide to register, you can use discount code SB1 for $500 off registration!

We hope to see some of you next month in New York!

The HR Executive Conference - What Wasn't Said

Earlier this week I was fortunate enough to attend the Senior HR Executive Conference organized by The Conference Board, (my summary of the first day of event is here).

While there were so many excellent presentations from the HR Executives on a wide range of topics, read this piece from HR Ringleader on the Unilever 'Agile Working' program for an example, I want to focus on what wasn't said at the event.

In a day and a half of presentations, casual conversations, lunches, and networking the subject of social networking use in HR and the leveraging of social media tools and technologies for HR, was largely absent from the discourse.   In total, I think we (the bloggers that were invited to the event) only Flickr - JFChenierobserved two mentions of social networking; one a reference to sharing family recipes on Facebook, and two; a representative from PricewaterhouseCoopers talking about how PWC using social networking tools to connect with interns and intern candidates.

That was it.

No discussions on using new tools for workforce collaboration, for internal expertise location, to improving the 'connectedness' of their global organizations, and definitely no talk about implementing innovative strategies and approaches for using social networking to find, attract, retain, and engage top talent.

Last night on the HR Happy Hour show, a 2009: Year in Review, we spent a large portion of the time discussing social networking and social media as one of the most significant themes and trends for HR in 2009, (when we were not playing the Sad Trombone).  

What gives? If social media and social networking for HR were really that significant in 2009, shouldn't there have been at least some talk about this development at the HR Executive Conference? Shouldn't have one Senior HR leader talked about how HR was able to exploit employee networks, new technologies, or public sites like Twitter or Facebook to drive some truly innovative solutions?

Why might there be a disconnect between those of us active in social networks and technologies for HR and what we heard (or more accurately did not hear) from the Senior HR Executives?

ROI- On the Happy Hour, Jessica Lee made an excellent point.  She essentially said that HR Executives have not seen the real organizational ROI of social media and social networking for HR initiatives, and therefore do not yet consider it important and/or essential.  I think Jessica is right on with this observation.  These executives don't want to hear 'Look our company recruiting Facebook page is up to 823 fans!'. They want to know how these tools and strategies produce results, better hires, at lower cost, and improved results.  That is it.

Echo Chamber - The HR folks involved in social media and active in social networking have formed a nice, tight cocoon around ourselves, and since we keep telling each other this 'stuff' is important, then darn it, it must be important.  But we are not doing a good enough job in and out of our organizations reaching the broader HR community, and certainly not the highest levels of HR Executives. Until those of us that are proponents of these approaches start doing a better job on outreach, the executives will simply not even notice, let alone care.

It really isn't that important - So much of the conversation and presentations at the conference centered around implementing consistent performance evaluation processes, identifying and retaining high-potential employees, and managing the workforce through this recession. While at least in theory social technologies and strategies could assist organizations in these areas, it certainly is not necessarily obvious how.  In these organizations more tested and traditional approaches seemed to be the preference, and based on the presentations, many companies claimed successful outcomes.  Maybe it still is possible to solve important workforce and organizational crises without social networking.

It's still too new - It quite likely could be too early in the widespread understanding and adoption of social networking strategies in HR for them to have 'bubbled up' to get the attention of the average senior executive, or to have achieved the kind of success that an executive would want to actually talk about publicly. Maybe when I attend the 2010 Senior HR Executive Conference (please invite me back!), there will simply just be more to say on the topic.  While 2009 was truly a year of dramatic growth in HR's use of social media and networks, it still really has a long, long way to go.

I have to say I was indeed a bit surprised how little attention these ideas received at the conference, but truly after reflected on them a bit, and from the comments and discussion on last night's HR Happy Hour, it does make sense somewhat.

For HR folks invovled in social media and social networking, what do you think needs to be done in 2010 to get these topics on the radar of the most senior leaders in the discipline?

The HR Executive Conference - Day 1

The first day of the Senior HR Executive Conference was a fascinating day of presentations, discussion, and a real inside look at some of the HR practices in some of the world's largest companies.

HR Executives from Coca-Cola, Unilever, HP, FedEx and Chiquita Brands were just some of the organizations sharing their insights for a group of about 100 Senior HR executives (and a few of us lowly bloggers).

Some obsevations and highlights from Day 1:

Guarded Optimism - Some quick polls taken of the 100 or so Senior HR Executives in the room expressed fairly positive outlooks on business prospects and hiring trends in their organizations for 2010. Also interesting to note was that several of the presenters remarked that preserving and protecting employees and jobs from the effects of the recession was and remains a key component of ongoing strategy.

Talent - Almost every session touched on the problems that these mostly very large organizations see in acquiring, aligning, and engaging talent. It was actually surprising to hear several of the largest organizations still struggling with some basic and essential activities like consistent performance management or identification of successors for key leadership positions. While all presenters highlighted the new initiatives and improvements they were making, most indicated they still had much work to do in these areas.  There was almost universal focus on 'high-potentials', identifying them, retaining them, and making sure they understood the organization had plans for their growth and success.

Globalization - Since almost all the sessions were presented by very large ,Fortune 100 type companies, there was plenty of dialogue on the problems and challenges in managing a global workforce, deploying technology that can support all the places the organization has presence, and making sure that senior leadership properly reflects and supports global operations. When Chiquita Brands talks about the need for a HRIS solution that will be acceptable for the low bandwith in the Costa Rican banana farms, you know you are dealing with a truly global set of issues.

Branding everywhere - Coca-Cola, the most famous 'brand' in the world, still has lots of work to do on their 'Employer' or 'Talent' Brand. That was a telling comment from such a powerful consumer company. If even a Coca-Cola is concerned about how to best communicate and articulate their EVP, pretty much every company probably needs to be concerned.

Agile Working - The most interesting session of the day was the closing keynote from Fiona Laird of Unilever. The presentation and discussion was on Unilever's 'Agile Working' approach, a new way of working that puts results first, emphasizes the ability to work from anywhere and at anytime, and is supported by management processes and evaluations, the design of physical space, and the critical technologies that can unleash workers from their traditional '9-5' desk jobs.  According to Unilever, the Future of Work is flexible, mobile, and 100% results focused.  That message was an excellent way to close the day.

I plan on diving in to a few of these themes in the next week or so, and also some thoughts on what was not talked about much by the HR Executives (social media, social networking).

Thanks so much to the folks at the Conference Board for inviting me to attend.