PODCAST - #HRHappyHour 283 - Compliance in a Changing HR Landscape

HR Happy Hour 283 - Compliance in a Changing HR Landscape

Host: Steve Boese

Guest Co-host : Madeline Laurano

Guests: Angela Lockman, Kristin Lewis - Equifax Workforce Solutions

Listen HERE

This week on a special HR Happy Hour Show recorded live from the Equifax Forum 2017 in Scottsdale, Steve Boese and guest host Madeline Laurano are joined by Kristin Lewis and Angela Lockman from Equifax Workforce Solutions on the challenges for HR leaders in keeping up with changing laws, regulations and ensuring compliance in what is a fast-moving and uncertain environment.

Angela and Kristin shared their unique point of view from the perspective of the leading provider of compliance solutions for HR and organizations on topics such as health care reform, immigration policy changes, and potential tax reform. They shared how Equifax works with employers to help them navigate these issues, as well as how Equifax works with government and regulators to endure that they understand and appreciate the employer point of view and the impact on employers.

We also talked about how onboarding of new employees is changing from one that for a time seemed to focus primarily on engagement and acculturation, to one where these compliance steps have become even more critical. 

You can listen to the show on the show page HERE, or by using the widget player below:

You can't do any 'strategic' HR or talent management unless until I9, eVerify, Visa Management, ACA reporting, WOTCs - are in line. Equifax is the leading authority in this space.

Thanks to Angela and Kristin for sharing their expertise and thanks to the Equifax team for hosting the show.

Please check out show sponsor Virgin Pulse - www.virginpulse.com.

Subscribe on iTunes and everywhere podcasts can be heard - just search for 'HR Happy Hour'.

PODCAST - #HRHappyHour 281 - Live at Oracle HCM World 2017

HR Happy Hour 281 - Live at Oracle HCM World 2017

Host: Steve Boese

Guests: Chris Kiessling, Royal Farms; Yamini Namasivayam, SRI International

Recorded at Oracle HCM World 2017, Boston, MA

Listen HERE

This week on a special episode of the HR Happy Hour Show, host Steve Boese reports from Oracle HCM World 2017 in Boston, and interviews two Oracle customers about their HR and HR tech transformations. First, Chris Kiessling from Royal Farms, a midsize chain of convenience stores in the Mid-Atlantic region talked about the challenges and opportunities that come with modernizing HR systems and processes to support their high-volume, high-turnover business, and set up the company for future growth. Then, Steve was joined by Yamini Namasivayam of SRI International, a high-tech firm that operates in a number of specialty domains. SRI too was faced with modernizing an aging set of HR tools - with the fundamental goal of turning HR technology into strategic and business advantage and driving revenue growth.

Both these stories were interesting as they help show how HR and HRIT leaders in the real world are generating value from investments in HR technology. 

You can listen to the show on the show page HERE, or by using the widget player below:

Thanks to Chris and Yamini for joining the show and thanks to Oracle for having the HR Happy Hour Show at HCM World.

And thanks to the HR Happy Hour Sponsor Virgin Pulse - learn more at www.virginpulse.com.

Subscribe to the HR Happy Hour on iTunes or wherever you listen to your podcasts - just search for 'HR Happy Hour' to subscribe and never miss a show.

HRE Column: #HRTech and Diversity and Inclusion

Once again, I offer my semi-frequent reminder and pointer for blog readers that I also write a monthly column at Human Resource Executive Online called Inside HR Tech that can be found here.

This month, I take a look at some of the HR Technology developments that are helping organizations work through the challenges and opportunities of an increased focus on diversity, inclusion, and fairness. Some of this work has been top of mind for me due to the time I am spending on organizing the second Women in HR Technology Summit that will be held at the HR Technology Conference in October. And the continuing focus and spotlight being placed on these issues, especially for tech companies, make this issue and the technologies that can help with it, an incredibly important focus area for HR tech.

So in this month's HR Executive column I examine a a few of the technologies and trends that are becoming more important in this area, and how these technologies can help inform and shape the design, development, and deployment of programs and initiatives in 2017, and beyond.  

This is an important issue, that we will be covering in more depth as 2017 progresses, and of course, at HR Tech in October.

From the HRE piece:

One of the highlights of last year's HR Technology Conference^® and Exposition was our first-ever "Women in HR Technology" summit on the first day of the event. This session was developed to focus on and raise awareness of many of the issues facing women in technology roles generally, and in the HR technology industry more specifically.

Additionally, we also tried to showcase many of the individual success stories from the many HR and HR technology leaders who participated in the summit, with the idea that their stories of personal and organizational achievement and impact would help educate and inspire the audience. The program was received positively, with standing-room-only attendance, and I have since been acting on numerous recommendations to expand it at this fall's conference.

Tech firms' ability to attract, recruit, develop and fairly compensate women and other underrepresented groups is an issue that continues to be top of mind for many HR and business leaders. And when there exists a compelling business or workplace need or opportunity, HR technology solutions and services will be developed or be adapted to attempt to meet these needs. Increasingly, a number of HR technology solutions have been created or have been enhanced to deliver functionality and insights to help HR and business leaders attract more diverse candidates, reduce the impact of bias in talent management decision making, and monitor and audit compensation programs and practices for fairness and equity across the organization.

Let's examine a few of these new and emerging HR technology solutions that help HR and business leaders promote and support the increasingly common and important goals of workplace diversity, inclusion, fairness and equity. We'll also explore how these technologies can help make a difference for organizations working towards meeting these goals.

Talent Sourcing

One of the primary reasons cited by organizations for their inability to build more diverse teams -- particularly for technical or engineering functions -- is a lack of qualified candidates at the beginning of the recruiting process. Many organizations say they would love to hire more female engineers or more people from underrepresented groups for these roles, but they simply are not able to find interested and qualified candidates. While there is debate over whether there's truly a so-called "skills mismatch" for these roles that is driving this challenge, there are some HR technology solutions that have been developed to address this "top of the funnel" issue and help HR and business leaders find more diverse candidates.

Entelo, a past recipient of the "Awesome New Technology for HR" recognition at HR Tech, has a product called Entelo Diversity that allows organizations to find and identify candidates based on gender, race or ethnicity, and even veteran status. This information and these indicators are layered on top of the candidate's skills profile to help organizations see a complete picture of the candidate, which will support diversity recruiting efforts. The Entelo algorithm is designed to help identify candidates who may meet these criteria without relying on specific keywords such as "black," "female," "veteran," etc. Using data about a person's academic history, social affiliations and job titles, the algorithm determines his or her likely gender, ethnicity or race, and whether the person has military experience. Tools such as Entelo Diversity and other advanced candidate-sourcing tools can augment the networks of an organization's recruiters and hiring managers, which may be otherwise lacking members of many underrepresented groups.

Read the rest at HR Executive Online...

If you liked the piece you can sign up over at HRE to get the Inside HR Tech Column emailed to you each month. There is no cost to subscribe, in fact, I may even come over and re-seed you lawn, take your dog for a walk, or help you plant your spring flowers. I especially like alstroemelias.

Have a great day!

PODCAST - #HRHappyHour 279 - Artificial Intelligence for HR and for People

HR Happy Hour 279 - Artificial Intelligence for HR and for People 

Host: Steve Boese

Guest Co-host: Madeline Laurano

Guests: Cecile Alper-Leroux, Armen Berjikly, Ultimate Software

Listen HERE

This week on the HR Happy Hour Show, Steve Boese and special guest co-host Madeline Laurano recorded a special Happy Hour Show live from Ultimate Connections 2017 in Las Vegas. They were joined by Ultimate Software's Cecile Alper-Leroux and Armen Berjikly to talk about the need to listen to the  'Voice of the Employee', the importance of technology to help HR leaders understand data, (especially unstructured data), and how modern technology solutions can help HR leaders move from just listening, to understanding, and finally, to taking actions, (and recommending actions).

The theme for the Ultimate Connections Conference was 'Elevate' - and the key idea to how HR and business leaders can elevate the employee experience by listening to their needs more closely, applying new technologies that can help analyze data from employee surveys and other disparate sources for things like sentiment and tone, and finally using those insights to take actions that can improve the organization and the individual employee experience.

Additionally, Steve re-visited Schoolhouse Rock, his old fashioned method of accessing data from a database, the happiest countries in the world, and Cecile cemented her position as all-time leading HR Happy Hour guest.

You can listen to the show on the show page HERE, or using the widget player below, (email and RSS subscribers click through)

This was a fun and interesting show - thanks to Madeline, and to Cecile and Armen and everyone at Ultimate for hosting the show.

Subscribe to the show on iTunes, Stitcher Radio, and all the podcast apps by searching for 'HR Happy Hour'.

Communication overload

There has been a proliferation of new communication technologies and services that are/can be used for work purposes in the last several years. Whether it is the newer tools that have seen increased adoption in the workplace like Slack or the just released Microsoft Teams, collaboration technologies that have adopted chat or discussion features like Box or Evernote, and of course the myriad social platforms that are also used for work communication like LinkedIn, Facebook, WhatsApp, etc. and the sheer number of places, systems, and tools that a modern professional has to keep up with is pretty daunting at times.

Oh, and I didn't even mention email, voicemail, and (lord help us, the actual phone). Who knows what tool to use or where to look for, check, or send a new message these days?

The comic from xkcd below illustrates this problem in a succinct, and clever way, (email and RSS subscribers may need to click through)

For me, the (sub-optimal) answer has been to mostly ignore the communication tools that I would prefer not to use at all for work reasons, (voicemail, Twitter DMs, Facebook, and most LinkedIn messages). My strategy is that the people trying to connect with me using those media will eventually interpret my non-responsiveness as a signal that they (if they really need to reach me for work reasons), try another method. 

For what's it worth, some time back I blogged about the preferred ways to contact me for work reasons to try and make it more clear how I would prefer to communicate.

But the problem with that old list, and with simply ignoring (or shutting off) any of the other popular tools for business communication is that it fails to take into account what the other person would prefer. So taking a blanket approach like I have, (essentially I want everything to be in email, while I am not always great about keeping up with it at times, at least I know where I can find everything), or text (I actually like texting for work a lot, it keeps things short and sweet), keeps me from effectively communicating with people who might like phone calls or who are comfortable using social networks like Twitter or Facebook for work purposes.

But the truth is almost no one would prefer to use every possible tool in the cartoon above to manage their work communication - it would be maddening if not impossible. And my guess is having to keep up with so many avenues for work communication are contributing to stress, burnout, and the inability to have any separation between work and not-work.

It is probably a pretty good idea for HR and talent leaders to be cognizant of how workplace communication tools have multiplied and how the associated expectations for employee monitoring and responsiveness have changed as well. 

Some places do have written, (or at least well-understood but unwritten), expectations for reading and responding to email for example, but I bet not many have similar guidelines or cultural norms for newer tools like Slack, the use of public social networks or apps for workplace messaging, and when (or if), employees can and should use texting for work communication. In small organizations, and in small teams that tend to mostly interact within the team, it is usually something that is pretty easy to work out.

One quick discussion the manager should have on Day One should go something like this : "We use email for formal stuff and team or company wide announcements, (respond if you have to send a response, and do it within one day unless there are unusual circumstances), Slack for 'real' collaboration conversations, (respond according to the demands and schedules of the project/task), and texting only for brief, and usually essential, or time-sensitive reasons (respond accordingly, you know, like a human)." Don't mention tools like Facebook or WhatsApp if you don't want them used for workplace messaging and then you likely will never have an issue with employees having 17 different Inboxes to monitor every day.

And finally, if you are starting a new communication with someone you don't work with regularly, you don't know, or is outside your organization, start with the more formal traditional tools first, (email, phone, voicemail), and don't jump to Facebook Messenger or a Twitter DM unless you are sure the person wants to use those tools for work. Not every business contact wants you sliding into their DMs.

Ok, that's it, I am out. Probably need to take my own medicine know and try and catch up on my email. 

But don't try leaving me a voicemail, it's full.