HR Times – The HR Blog

Business Driven Insight for Human Capital

Workforce Analytics as a Sales Tool? Here’s How

Posted by Ed Basanese and Rob Dicks on May 14, 2012

We’ve discussed here on HR Times the rise of workforce analytics as a tool to give HR leaders insights that can help them support broad organizational goals. In fact, workforce analytics is one of the eight human capital trends discussed in the report Leap Ahead. Another is HR’s growing role in supporting sales force effectiveness, which has HR implications ranging from talent strategies and organization design to learning and development, compensation, governance and change management. Now, we’re seeing these two trends converging—specifically, how a specialized type of analytics that looks at the formal and informal networks within organizations can help lead to more effective sales forces as well as increased organizational effectiveness overall...Continue Reading

HR in the Financial Services Industry? Most are paying too much.

Posted by Greg des Groseilliers and Jeff Altman on April 26, 2012

We all know the financial services industry (FSI) has been under the microscope in the past few years, but a new Deloitte Consulting benchmarking study focuses the attention on a different aspect of FSI operations: HR. What’s revealed may seem like piling on to change-weary FSI organizations. But, as the saying goes, the truth can set you free, or in this case, help you understand where significant improvement opportunities lie and how to take advantage of them.

The study finds that most banking and insurance companies spend more per employee and have a higher HR-staff-to-employee ratio than their industry’s top performers...Continue Reading

Workforce Analytics is a Journey and a Process

Posted by Rishi Agarwal on April 12, 2012

The journey
Many HR organizations have a desired destination in mind, one where they have the analytics capability to make predictions about their workforce for which they can then develop targeted responses. For example, they want to be able to predict the likelihood of turnover for a particular role or individual, so they can devise specific retention strategies. Or they want to predict which high potentials have the best chance of success as a senior leader. In our experience, there are many steps on the workforce analytics journey and organizations sit at different points along the journey based on their information maturity...Continue Reading

Aggressor Integration is a Hat Tip to HR’s Cloud-based Future

Posted by John Malikowski on March 29, 2012

Deloitte’s integration of Aggressor, LLC (Aggressor), a fast-growing boutique consultancy based in Pleasanton, California, is exciting for those of us in HR, who have seen the transformational power of cloud-based computing and the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model.

Aggressor has been 100 percent focused on Workday – a leading cloud-based SaaS HR and Finance solution – and is one of Workday’s largest Alliance partners. By combining Aggressor’s resources with Deloitte’s already strong Workday practice, Deloitte will immediately become the largest Workday consultancy in terms of number of practitioners, number of Workday implementations and client qualifications....Continue Reading

Have You Built Your Retention Firewall?

Posted by Robin Erickson on March 23, 2012

Your company is likely protected by a firewall to keep cyber-intruders out of your IT systems and private or proprietary data in. Firewalls like these often include multiple levels and layers of protection throughout the IT network (e.g., gateway, server, client) that are integrated to work together—a sort of deadbolt + guard dog + alarm system approach to security.

This firewall concept is also an apt way to think about protecting what many consider to be your company’s most valuable asset—its talent. With relatively high unemployment and low voluntary turnover, it might be tempting to put employee retention challenges on the back burner. Big mistake...Continue Reading

Human Capital Trends: Growth is Job #1

Posted by Barbara Adachi on March 9, 2012

After the last few years of weathering tough economic times with a cautious strategy of “stabilize and survive,” many CEOs are again placing growth at the top of their agendas. As they look to capitalize on opportunities in emerging markets, expand through merger and acquisition (M&A) and reinvigorate their organizations through innovation, their HR team can be a valuable ally.

As noted in Deloitte’s latest report, Human Capital Trends 2012: Leap Ahead, HR leaders can do more than simply support the CEO’s growth agenda. In many cases, HR can actively inform that agenda and help to drive growth...Continue Reading

The Postdigital Divide: Why Businesses should support the Empowered Employee in the Network Economy

Posted by John Hagel, Suketu gandhi and Giovanni Rodriguez on February 17, 2012

At a time when most of the world is struggling to keep people employed, a small but growing number of leaders in the private and public sector are providing employees with new rules and tools for getting ahead. The reason: Savvy leaders are beginning to see that these new rules and tools — the “postdigital” technologies and best practices that are equipping employees to outperform their peers — allow businesses to see employees not as costs to be managed, but as assets that help grow the top and bottom line.

But while these leaders leap ahead with groundbreaking experiments in human resources, marketing/sales and product innovation, a great number of market incumbents are lagging, leaving them vulnerable to massive disruption...Continue Reading

HR’s Role in the High Stakes M&A Game

A mergers and acquisitions (“M&A”) deal can be a transformational opportunity for an organization—opening up new product offerings and markets, filling talent gaps, improving operational performance and more. Much of its potential, however, depends on senior leaders playing the right cards, before, during and after the deal. Human Resource (“HR”) leaders can help them do that.

According to Deloitte’s newest book in the Straight Talk series, High stakes M&A: Seven bets that matter, many of the “leadership cards” have a strong people component, hinging on senior leaders’ ability to...Continue Reading

World-Class Talent Programs Aren’t Waiting for the Recovery

Posted by Alice Kwan on January 20, 2012

How can we grow?
How can we build our leadership ranks?
How can we get the right talent in the right place?

These are the key questions senior executives and talent managers at large (+$500 million) companies are confronting in the face of lingering economic uncertainty and an uneven talent market. These results are from Talent Edge 2020: Redrafting talent strategies for the uneven recovery our latest survey in the Talent Edge 2020 series build from the findings of two earlier studies: a December 2010 report on executive attitudes and an April 2011 report on global employee attitudes and talent concerns.

What a difference a year makes! 2011 started with the prospect of an imminent global recovery and ended with fears of a double dip recession that threatened to create a long and sketchy global recovery...Continue Reading

Building Enterprise Risk Intelligence^TM through Smart Learning and Development

Posted by Josh Haims on January 6, 2012

The pressure on organizations to address enterprise risk is unlike any we’ve seen before, perhaps because the scale and scope of risk is unprecedented. Certainly, in the wake of the financial crisis and ensuing reforms, regulatory and compliance risk looms large in the financial sector, as well as in health care, with its similarly sweeping reforms. We also anticipate supply chain risk for manufactures, competitive risk for retailers and brand and reputational risk virtually across the board, given the rise in social media and the potential power of global social networks to rapidly shift large groups of people for or against a product or company.

In response, many organizations are reengineering processes, implementing policies, putting controls in place, introducing new technologies — and fine-tuning and adapting all of these as the rules evolve — to manage, avoid and mitigate risk. But with these new ways of working comes the need to consider building new employee capabilities...Continue Reading

Global Business Driven HR Transformation: The Journey Continues

Posted by Jason Geller and Arthur H. Mazor on December 12, 2011

You can turn to the TV talking heads to hear opinions about the future. Or you can turn to the people in the trenches for an informed view of what really lies down the track.

These words introduce our new book on global HR Transformation and help explain why we created it. Our global HR Transformation consulting practitioners have amassed a unique perspective on the continuing journey to achieve Business Driven HR and address the major challenges organizations face globally larger issues and trends.Most every organization with which we collaborate can share stories about their place along the HR Transformation journey. The strategies we’ve pulled together are grounded in a set of key business imperatives, including....Continue Reading

Leadership by Design

Posted by Neil Neveras and Eric Berger on November 10, 2011

"If I just had better leaders, I could _________"

That’s what I hear over and over from the companies with whom I work. Whether they fill in the blank with “expand into new markets” or “meet increasing regulatory demands” or “transform the company”—or some other pressing issue—they know that improved leadership is critical to meeting the challenge. What they are unsure of, however, is how to develop the leaders they need.

We see leadership development as a process—one that starts with getting crystal clear about your company’s top strategic priorities, then figuring out where your leadership gaps lie relative to those priorities and finally taking targeted actions (more than one!) to close the gaps. Like solving other business challenges, leadership development requires a systemic solution that considers many factors in an organized, thoughtful way. Continue Reading

Live from Workday Rising 2011

Posted by John Malikowski and Mike Mitchell on October 28, 2011

We’re live from Workday Rising 2011, Las Vegas...Continue Reading

Designing for a Global Enterprise for 50,000 (or 5,000 or 500)

Posted by Zahava Kahan on October 26, 2011

Today at Workday Rising 2011, I’m co-presenting with colleagues from Thomson Reuters and Workday about the global/local design for Thomson Reuters’ HR Transformation for 55,000 employees in 100 countries. We’ll cover the importance of thoughtful global design, the value of socialization, pitfalls to avoid and new leading practices. If your company happens to be contemplating or in the midst of a similar effort, I’d be happy to share the details of our presentation with you. But even if your efforts to implement new technologies or new ways of working are smaller in scale, many of the same practices and lessons apply. For example, creating (and living by) business process design principles:

Think globally first, locally as needed. Our team focused on keeping our designs global and then adding local (country) variations as needed. Even if your “world” encompasses one country or even one state, the same practice of standardizing on a universal process applies... Continue Reading

Peeking Ahead: HR Service Delivery in 2015

Posted by Dan Sundt on October 25, 2011

My topic today at Workday Rising 2011, presented with clients from CareFusion and Applied Materials, is how Workday enables a variety of HR service delivery models, with particular emphasis on shared services and outsourcing. Also being discussed are some of lessons learned by CareFusion and Applied Materials from their implementations and operating a HR Service Delivery model that is enabled by Workday.

Many organizations that have implemented Workday as their HCM solution are having to face undertaking HR Service Delivery transformation to meet the demands of their growing business. While Workday as a solution is scalable and adaptable... Continue Reading

Workday Rising…to the Cloud

Posted by John Malikowski on October 24, 2011

I’m here at Workday Rising 2011—filled with people who have embraced cloud-based computing and the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model for their business. A number of factors have converged to make this technology particularly attractive for HR — the ability to enable broader transformation efforts, advance HR’s strategic position as a valued business partner and raise the bar for ongoing HR service delivery. So if you haven’t yet explored the possibilities, or haven’t done so lately, now is an ideal time.

Recent Deloitte research shows that 84 percent of surveyed companies are either transforming or planning to transform how they handle human resources functions, driven primarily by the desire to save costs (85 percent) and improve effectiveness (75 percent) of their HR function...Continue Reading

Working as One: Collective Leadership

Posted by Fred Miller on October 19, 2011

Collective leadership is an approach to thinking about how organizations achieve major goals: deploying new strategies or implementing transformational change. It identifies ways leaders can more effectively galvanize their people to work together toward a common purpose. It is a business strategy, rather than an HR strategy, but its emphasis on people and leadership means HR can be an important driver and supporter of the effort (as explained in our Human Capital Trends 2011 report ).

Deloitte’s new perspective, called As One, helps leaders better engage with the people in their organization to achieve greater goal alignment and collaboration. Continue Reading

What’s New in Innovation?

Posted by Alice Kwan on October 7, 2011

Many of the executives I talk with are wrestling with how to establish a culture of innovation in their organizations. Driven by forces like M&A activity, the growing need to partner with others in and out of their industry and the ever-present pressure to increase efficiencies and cut costs, they want to know how to expand collaborative thinking and new idea generation beyond the traditional “innovation departments” like R&D and product development.

Companies often struggle with this because building innovation capability is a long-term strategy that takes time and determination, with results measured in future value. This can be at odds with and sometimes overshadowed by, the immediate need to hit growth and profit targets. Continue Reading

It’s the Future: Are You Ready?

Posted by Jeff Schwartz on September 23, 2011

Prior to the recession, the emerging economies of China, India, Brazil and others represented the growth markets of the future. After the recession, that future has arrived — redirecting companies to compete globally for both customers and talent. But how have global markets changed and where should HR executives be focusing their attention?

Consider Michael Spence's concept of a multispeed world. Spence, an American economist and recipient of the 2001 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, is the author of The Next Convergence: The Future of Economic Growth in a Multispeed World. Professor Spence asserts that it's not just that global businesses are now operating in different markets, but that the speeds at which various geographies and markets are growing and developing is different, hence the term "multispeed world." Continue Reading

The Evolving Dual Role of HR in Managing Risk

Posted by Michael Fuchs on September 9, 2011

The HR function has traditionally been the “stewards” responsible for managing internal HR compliance and regulatory risks in its direct area of responsibility. Recruiting, hiring, compensation and pension/401(k) plans have long been in HR’s purview and as regulatory requirements in these areas have grown, so has HR’s compliance burdenThe HR function has traditionally been the “stewards” responsible for managing internal HR compliance and regulatory risks in its direct area of responsibility. Recruiting, hiring, compensation and pension/401(k) plans have long been in HR’s purview and as regulatory requirements in these areas have grown, so has HR’s compliance burden. But these aren’t the only areas affected by an increasingly regulated business environment. Other parts of the organization are also feeling the pain of managing and mitigating risk and it’s here that HR leaders can add strategic insight and value. Continue Reading

Scaling the Lattice or Clinging to the Ladder?

Posted by Andrew Liakopoulos on August 25, 2011

Few of us work the same way now as we did (or our parents did) over 20 years ago. Workplaces are moving away from the corporate ladder, with its top-down hierarchy, vertical career path, and career versus life dilemma, and toward a flatter, more collaborative, Corporate Lattice structure that offers more options for getting work done and defining a career. Continue Reading

Putting Workforce Reporting and Analytics to Work

Posted by John Houston on August 11, 2011

Many organizations have been actively using analytics to support areas such as finance, risk, customer relations management and supply chain optimization for years now. But over the last year, workforce analytics has become a major focus of attention...Continue Reading

Workforce Analytics: Moving from Basic HR Reporting to Sophisticated In-House Capabilities

Workforce analytics can be applied to a number of business issues. Tell us more about where your organization is in its analytics journey and what’s next? What thoughts do you have about workforce analytics and the issues we addressed today? What are the challenges your organization is facing in its journey? Continue Reading

Exploring the Safe Harbor in Health Care Reform

Posted by Steve Kraus on July 28, 2011

By now, many of the executives I talk with, both in HR and Finance, have realized that health care reform isn't going away — and by health care reform I don’t mean simply the “poster child” Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA). Heath care is changing on many fronts, from clinical science to information technology to Medicare and FDA transformation to the very way doctors, hospitals, insurers and patients interact. Every employer is impacted and the issue goes well beyond the compliance aspect of reform that garnered so much attention last year. Continue Reading

Diversity: A Key to the Innovation Engine

Posted by Thom McElroy on July 15, 2011

Perhaps my favorite concept in business is the idea of synergy — the thought that the whole of our ideas is greater than the sum of their parts. It only stands to reason that as leaders bring a variety of ideas, background, experience, and personal history together, the outcome is being able to outpace the competition. Emerging from a world where diversity was about “leveling the playing field,” many companies today are realizing that just the opposite is true — diversity is about raising the bar for the whole organization; it is about gaining competitive advantage. Continue Reading

Unlocking the Value of HR Business Partners

Do your HR business partners have the right attributes? How much time is really spent on driving business performance? HR business partnering can encounter a range of challenges such as feeling like HR and the business are coming from different perspectives. But, HR Business Partners need to believe that they are not just partnering with the business—but are themselves a vital part of the business.

A new booklet, “Business driven HR: Unlock the value of HR Business Partners,” has just been released that addresses these issues. It provides Deloitte’s experience and approach on how to make business partnering work in your organization. Continue Reading

Contingent vs. Full Time: Achieving the Magical Mix

Posted by Tom Joseph on June 29, 2011

How many full-time employees do we need? How many contractors? Doing what jobs where?

These may seem like basic questions. But answering them is surprisingly difficult for most organizations and underscores HR leaders’ challenge to help better manage talent overall and the contingent workforce in particular. Continue Reading

HR and the Cloud: A Perfect Storm

Posted by John Malikowski on June 10, 2011

HR’s ascent into the cloud is one of six revolutionary trends in our Human Capital Trends 2011 report. Why? Because in the past 24 months, a couple of factors have converged to create a “perfect storm” of opportunity for HR organizations to leverage the usage and availability of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) technology. Continue Reading

The Contingent Workforce Dilemma

Posted by Michael Gretczko on May 13, 2011

We all know contractors, or contingent workers. We hire them into our organizations and we work beside them as a part of our team. They bring specialized skills and they perform tasks that may not be core to our business but are still needed to get the job done.

Power to the People: Leveraging Mobile Devices to Deliver HR

Posted by Derek Polzien on May 6, 2011

Power to the People? Recent Deloitte research and experience with HR Outsourcing & HR Shared Services indicates that there is a significant untapped opportunity to embrace mobile devices as a channel to deliver HR services. Today’s technology environment provides a “no excuses” opportunity to address the needs of a 21st Century mobile workforce. Continue Reading

Things to Consider – Integrated HCM Solutions versus Best of Breed Solutions

Posted by Michael Page on April 22, 2011

When it comes to Talent Management, the age old question of “Best of Breed” vs. “Integrated HCM Solution” has gotten a new twist. Today the conversation is around the new concept “Best of Suite”. So what exactly is a “Best of Suite” solution and how is it different from the traditional terminology? Is there really a new 3rd option in the market place or is it the same old story? What should I consider when evaluating Talent Management technology solutions?

True Manager Self Service, Is It Really Possible?

Posted by Tamara Cibenko on April 1, 2011

I was out to dinner the other night with a senior HR professional and the conversation turned to the merits of Manager Self Service (MSS). Apparently MSS is viewed by some as a great idea but not a true vehicle for savings. Yet when you do the analysis, it’s clear that shifting these activities to managers can decrease HR time and could potentially reduce call volumes. I couldn’t help but think, what’s going wrong? The answer, in a word, is “usability”. Continue Reading

Only in America: The Global Benefits Administration Market

Posted by Melanie Langsett on March 18, 2011

Only in America…Nelson Hall projects that the global benefits administration market will experience a compounded annual average growth rate (“CAAGR”) of 4.8 percent through 2014, driven by an 11.6 percent CAAGR for Health & Welfare (“H&W”) administration in North America.

Implementing HR Shared Services: Hiring or Transitioning Staff into a New Organization Model

Posted by Marc Solow on February 24, 2011

Many organizations are in the process of implementing a new shared services organization (SSO) or improving their existing SSOs after what has been a challenging couple of years following the economic downturn of 2008. Organizations often underestimate the level of effort and the number of really hard decisions that need to be made in order to effectively manage a Workforce Transition. Recently working with a client that was looking to reorganize and restructure its SSO, I realized that sometimes the easiest part may be kicking off the project. Continue Reading

The Emerging Role of the HR COO – Part II: Responsibilities and Potential Benefits

Posted by Jason Geller and Robin I. Lissak on February 8, 2011

Last week, in part one of a two-part series, we discussed the service wants and needs of the business from the HR department and the proposal of a new executive HR role that focuses on how the desired services get delivered to the organization. This week we dive a bit deeper and take a look at the responsibilities of this new role, and the anticipated results that can be achieved. Continue Reading

The Emerging Role of the HR COO – Part I

Posted by Jason Geller and Robin I. Lissak on February 2, 2011

Despite the demonstrated benefits of HR transformation, business executives and HR leaders alike continue to voice frustration with HR’s ability to deliver value. With no shortage of talented people doing great work, what’s the problem? All signs point to the need to rethink how HR organizations deliver on the promise of supporting the business – with a new role designed to drive performance improvements across the entire HR organization. The HR Chief Operating Officer. Continue Reading

Aligning, Influencing, and Delivering – HR Business Partner and Centers of Excellence

Posted by Beth Thiebault on December 16, 2010

As HR has transformed from the administrative functions of an organization to partnering with the business on strategic decisions, HR needs to continue to evolve in order to structure the roles of Business Partner (BP) and Centers of Excellence (CoEs) in a way in which they align to the business needs, influence business strategies, and deliver valuable results. Continue Reading

Talent Technology is Hot. But Don’t Forget About the Service Delivery!

Posted by David Parent on December 2, 2010

Workforce Planning & Analytics. Performance Management Systems. Learning Management Systems. Compensation Solutions. Succession Planning. Regardless of whether it’s integrated or stand-alone solutions, Talent Technology is hot. According to several industry analysts, this market grew through the Great Recession and is projected to eclipse double-digit growth for the foreseeable future. Continue Reading

Global Mobility as a Talent Management Tool

Posted by Rick Wildt on November 17, 2010

It used to be that business leaders viewed global mobility as a primarily tactical exercise – a mechanism for filling open positions around the world with home-country employees. But the globalization of business has driven a sea of change in how companies address their global workforce. Now, leaders are realizing that global mobility, far from being merely a way to plug local talent holes, can also be a strategic talent development tool, helping give potential leaders and other key employees the global perspective and international experience needed to be an effective leader in a borderless world. Continue Reading

Workday Enabled HR Transformation

Posted by John Malikowski on October 11, 2010

Some think Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is the next big disruptive technology. Others argue it’s simply the natural evolution of distributed computing capabilities. Regardless of the answer, it’s a complex topic and is changing how businesses purchase, deploy, and support Human Resources-related technologies and IT services. In some form or another, many businesses are taking advantage of the scalability and flexibility of SaaS solutions, using either an on-demand or subscription-based pay-as-you-go model. It’s an approach that’s already transforming traditional IT organizations and structures into more nimble, flexible, and affordable architectures. Continue Reading

The Future of HR Transformation, Part 3 of 3

Posted by Jason Geller on October 4, 2010

To continue where we left off with Part 1, new business challenges are forcing CHROs to re-evaluate their role and how they can best position the HR function to ensure that HR has an active role in implementing business strategy. As the role of HR evolves, keeping an eye on the talent agenda will be a key way to stay ahead of the game. Continue Reading

The Future of HR Transformation, Part 2 of 3

Posted by Jason Geller on September 28, 2010

The Future of HR Transformation, Part 1 of 3

Posted by Jason Geller on September 15, 2010

In our last post, we took a trip down memory lane and examined the evolution of HR Transformation. Now, we’d like to take a forward look into where HR Transformation is going over the next few years.

From our perspective, new business challenges are forcing Chief Human Resource Officers (CHRO) to re-evaluate their role and how they can best position the HR function to ensure that HR has an active role in implementing business strategy. HR leaders are increasingly expected to be strategic, executive-level advisors, mobilizing HR to support key business drivers – and they need to capitalize on several growing trends to do so. Continue Reading

HR Transformation: Look How Far We've Come!

Posted by Robin I. Lissak on September 7, 2010

HR Transformation (HRT) recently turned 21 – that’s 21 years of reducing costs, of improving operating effectiveness and of revolutionizing HR systems and processes, shared services, outsourcing and self-service. With our first installment of the new HRT newsletter – a bi-weekly publication from Deloitte’s Human Capital practice – we thought it fitting to reflect on how our specialty has evolved over the years. Continue Reading