The Problem with HR

By: Levi Liebling
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  • Summary

  • Each episode Levi discusses the current issues and challenges faced by the HR industry in the UK, Europe and around the world
    “This podcast is copyright 2020 by Levi Liebling. Although all creative works are protected by copyright
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Career Success Economics
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Episodes
  • Sustained change, Communication and Feedback loops with Kevin Grossman

    Sustained change, Communication and Feedback loops with Kevin Grossman
    Jun 2 2021
    Kevin W. Grossman is the President of Talent Board and the Candidate Experience Awards. Founded in 2011, it’s the first nonprofit research organisation focused on the elevation and promotion of a quality candidate experience with industry benchmarks that highlight accountability, fairness and business impact. Kevin has over 22 years of domain expertise in the human resource and talent acquisition industry and related technology marketplace. He’s been a prolific "HR business" blogger and writer since 2004, and his first business book on career management titled Tech Job Hunt Handbook was released in December 2012 from Apress. His second book, titled The Business Impact of Candidate Experience, will be released in 2022 by Kogan Page. Kevin holds a B.A. in Psychology from San Jose State University, is an HCI certified Talent Acquisition Strategist (TAS) and Human Capital Strategist and has learning certificates from eCornell on HR Analytics and Diversity and Inclusion. An avid reader, a grateful father and husband, he writes regularly about responsible parenting and personal leadership at GetOffTheGround.blogspot.com. How long has Kevin been in the HR space? (05:51) Kevin says it’s been just over 22 years.Prior to his career in HR, he was in the high tech, marketing and communications and university relations industries.He says that he is more focused on recruiting and technology areas of HR.Kevin always had an affinity for recruiting, hiring and retention. What motivated Kevin to get into HR? (10:16) When Kevin was in high-tech marketing and communication, he worked for an agency in silicon valley and helped them with product and service launches.He says he enjoyed the work he was doing and stayed for almost four years.An opportunity at a startup presented itself. They had an algorithm that matched candidates in their communities to companies.He learned what it was like to source and recruit individuals and fell in love with it. What problems have Kevin identified in the industry, and what is he doing about it? (27:21) He says they are trying to help companies understand what impacts their recruiting and hiring efforts, and eventually, their retention. The problem is sustained change, continuous communication and feedback loops.From the research they do every year, they’ve identified communication and feedback as a challenge.Kevin says when COVID hit, they’ve seen the resentment rate in companies go down, and the positive rating go up.They found that there was more empathetic communication going on between employers and candidates and also employers and their employees.The level of communication was higher than they’ve ever seen and was more transparent and empathetic, and candidates were more forgiving.He is worried that they are going to see the empathetic communication decrease as things normalise again.  How has the landscape in HR changed because of COVID? (38:15) People had to get comfortable with virtualising everything.HR had to get comfortable answering a lot of questions they didn’t have the answers to.Another challenge he identifies is how to keep the workforce safe. One of HR’s functions is to keep them safe, and they had to figure out how best to do that while also keeping the company going.Kevin says COVID allowed companies to rethink their emergency preparedness and how they address these things.Companies have figured out remote working works, and that is something that we will see going forward. How does Kevin see the industry as a whole change over the next five years? (40:41) Kevin believes technology will be more pervasive in the recruiting and hiring process and in the talent management process.He hopes people will be given the opportunity to share their voice and thoughts more.He also believes we are going to learn to better manage the technologies we choose to employ. What top tips can Kevin give to people who are new in HR? (43:56) Always remember the journey to the job you now have and what the experience was like, both the good and the bad.Always be mindful and positive, and keep that in mind in every single interaction you have.  Kevin’s book recommendation: The three-body problem Cixin Liu  Improv for democracy - Don Waisanen  Connect with Kevin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinwgrossman/ Talent Board Website: https://www.thetalentboard.org/
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    47 mins
  • Being in Denial About Problems is a Problem with Natasha Saeed

    Being in Denial About Problems is a Problem with Natasha Saeed
    May 26 2021

    Natasha Saaed is a legal advisor at Direct Law and Personnel and is currently studying towards an LPC/LLM. She has three years as an HR Professional.

    How did Natasha get started in the industry? (00:52)

    • Natasha says that she’s been working at DLP for nearly three years now.
    • She never thought that she’d become an HR professional and just stumbled into it.
    • Natasha graduated in 2018, and when she thought about HR back then, she thought of people who handle your payments.
    • She started her LPC because that was a logical progression for her from an LLB. 
    • There was a big enough period between graduation and registering for the LPC for her to look for a part-time job. She applied at DLP and been there ever since.

     

    Where do Natasha’s drive and determination come from? (06:22)

    • Natasha says growing up, she was interested in medicine and wanted to study in that field.
    • When she was 18 years old doing her A-levels, she was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma.
    • She feels that she always had a lot of drive and determination, but it became stronger after her diagnosis.
    • At the time, she had her exams ahead of her and didn’t want to fall behind. The chemo took a lot out of her, and she couldn’t take her exams when she planned to and had to postpone for a couple of months.
    • Being in hospital as much as she was, she decided she didn’t want to get into medicine and study law.
    • She had to change schools, choose different A-levels and ended up being the top learner in her class.

    What is one of the problems Natasha identified in HR throughout her journey? (20:57)

    • According to her, many HR professionals either don’t realise there is a problem or are in denial about a problem. That is one of the biggest problems that she identified.
    • She says when people are in denial, the problem gets unbearable, and it could have been a lot easier to address it at the starts. 
    • The second problem she identifies is HR professionals sticking to processes as if they are only black and white. 
    • She feels people have to consider all the facts instead of blindly following a process.

    How does she think we can overcome and address the problem? (25:30)

    • She says if you know that something is not working out can make people feel uncomfortable, they often don’t acknowledge problems because they don’t want to make a big deal.
    • According to her, HR professionals don’t need to make a big deal of problems. They do need to acknowledge them, and how they approach the matter will make the difference.
    • HR professionals should not be scared of rocking the boat. If they know there is an issue, they need to get onto it right away and know what outcome they want to achieve. 

     

    What tips would she give new people coming into HR? (30:42)

    • Natasha says they should constantly learn.
    • They shouldn’t think that they know everything they need to know.
    • She also thinks that HR professionals should always look for the facts and understand what you are doing and the long term effects you will have in each scenario.

    Natasha’s book recommendation:

    The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

    Connect with Natasha on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natasha-saeed-511948203/

    Visit the new digital platform for HR Professionals at https://s2gnetwork.com/
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    33 mins
  • Company Culture and Remote Work With Brett Putter

    Company Culture and Remote Work With Brett Putter
    May 19 2021
    Brett Putter is an expert on company culture development. He is the founder and CEO of CultureGene, a culture leadership software and consultancy services platform helping companies build strong, functional cultures while transitioning to a remote or hybrid work model. Brett has written two books on the subject of company culture - Culture Decks Decoded was published in 2018, and Own Your Culture: How to Define, Embed and Manage your Company Culture was published in September 2020. He writes a popular blog on culture-driven companies and is a sought-after speaker.   Who is Brett Putter? (01:04) Brett says that he is originally South African but emigrated to the UK 20 years ago.A couple of months ago, he decided to move to Portugal.Before starting CultureGene, he ran an executive search firm for 16.His work was all about people, HR and working out the human element of being human. For how long has Brett been involved in company culture? (01:50) Five years ago, he worked with three companies where he was asked to find them senior-level executives. He mentions that these three companies all had a clear understanding of their culture.He was asked to find candidates with the right skills and experience to fit the job description and then match them to match them with the company’s values.Brett says that these searches were a lot harder to do than usual, but after he saw the impact the candidates had on the company and the business’s success, he realised that there was something there. Since then, he’s been focused on helping companies define their culture and embed it in their employees. Describe the moment you decided to make the shift from executive search to company culture (06:10)  Brett says after working with the three companies, he started telling other clients that he will help them define their values and then help them find candidates who match those values as part of the search.He would then go ahead and help them define their company values, but they didn’t really know what to do with the values once they were defined.He realised that he enjoyed the searches less and that building and defining the culture interested him more.One of the things he enjoyed about the culture was that he could immediately see the impact he made on the organisation, and when he realised that, he decided to make it his primary focus. What other problems has Brett identified in HR or related to HR? Brett feels that HR has always been deemed as an annoying function, but the pandemic has in some cases where they had a role to play in helping manage employees through the pandemic,He says HR professionals now have to step up and be at the table and make themselves valuable.Another problem is that HR professionals are not doing enough to understand how remote companies operate.He doesn’t think that we are going back to the way things were, and many companies will transition to a hybrid work environment. To do so successfully, HR professionals will have to know the best practices for remote work. Brett says HR’s role in remote work is not only about ensuring employees have the right internet and the right chair but also about understanding the Zoom spiral of doom where systems are not designed for remote work. Employees spend too much time on Zoom, communication is too synchronous, and systems are not designed for effective remote work.He describes the Zoom spiral of Doom as being on Zoom a lot because people can’t read what they need to read about you, your processes and your documents. Because you spend so much time on Zoom means you don’t have time to do work during the day and start working at night, which will lead to exhaustion, you don’t connect socially anymore, which forces you to be on Zoom more, and you end up being lonely and depressed.   How does Brett contribute towards solving the problem of HR professionals not doing enough to understand how remote companies operate? (17:58) Brett says because he develops software for distributed teams to help with their culture development process, he decided to study remote working companies. He discovered that remote companies over-index in 9 key areas, define even the smallest processes, and document them. He says social connection and the elements around well-being are important and remote companies train managers to encourage environments of transparency and psychological safety. Remote companies focus heavily on recruiting and onboarding because they don’t have face-to-face where you can trust your gut. He went on to build the nine best practices remote companies focus on into his culture development process. Brett’s book recommendation: Own Your Culture by Brett Putter An everyone culture by Robert Kegan, Lisa Lahey and Matthew Miller Connect with Brett on:  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brettonputter/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/BrettonPutter Email: brett@culturegene.ai CultureGene’s Website: http://www.culturegene.ai/
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    31 mins

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