HR today is about organizational transformation Date:   Wednesday , June 08, 2011 The corporate world is undergoing a rapid transformation, thanks to ‘technology’ that is today touching every aspect of a business process. At the same time the HR space is seeing a rapid transition too, and it has more to do with the changing outlook of managers than just technology making it more automated. In a candid conversation with Vimali Swamy, Duke Daehling, EVP – Startegic Accounts, Kenexa and Dr. Bob Bergman, Consulting Director – EMEA, Kenexa talk about the changing outlook towards HR and the new trends. Founded in 1987, Kenexa is a global provider of business solutions for human resources. How has the transformation of HR industry been in the last 10 years? Organizations have traditionally been simpler, more stable, and comfortable, with traditional hierarchies, and traditional management structures, a structure that was formed in the 1880s and was till 10 years ago. But nowadays this structure has become less stable, somewhat volatile, and very complex and dynamic due to the easy access to information. 15 years ago if you were trying to put a succession plan for your next CEO you would have to go through all sorts of channels of interviewing people, understand how they scored on certain tests or in personality measures, and all of this was paper based. But now the same task can be done easily with planning tools that are available online. With these tools you can search for the profiles of suitable candidates, simply dial up, and talk to them and decide who are best suited to take over the post. What are the common concerns or challenges for an organization? The common concern amongst organizations is how to attract and retain top talent. The traditional, conventional wisdom says if you put in the right structures, policies and procedures, and technology, it will yield you top talent. But our research shows that if you put in something conventional it will yield conventional results and not transformational results. If you have the same age old structure then the new generation of people entering the organization will not resonate towards it. Today’s generation likes things to be volatile, they expect technology to be fast and they want to work in an organization setup which provides an environment like that. They want to learn whatever they can from an organization within a year and move on to another organization. So as an organization one must have a structure that is cognizant with this demand and plays to that as an advantage. If someone wants to change the existing structure, what is the turnaround time? Transformation cannot happen overnight, there should be realistic expectations. Currently we are working with a global professional services firm that has about a 120,000 employees and their transformation timeline is of five years. What they are trying to do is to create a high performance culture and definition of high performance culture varies from company to company, leader to leader, and we are trying to give them the same language, the same definition, and then create systems with in the existing organizational structures to achieve those goals in five years. For this we have one year markers, three year markers, and five year markers, because one has to measure all parameters at individual, team, organizational and country level. What are the common trends that you see when it comes to India vs. Global market? There is some data regarding gender differences which was very compelling. When we look at gender differences across the globe the data is the same now but about six years ago this was not the case. Women were about six points below men when it came to engagement. But in India there is a dramatic difference especially that has developed in the last couple of areas. The perspective of female leaders and their effectiveness are higher than men in India. It is not a mere nominal difference. There are two areas that have very statistical significance, one is in just general overall performance of female managers and the other is in keeping commitments. These two parameters are very high with female managers. It is startlingly positive. In this era of globalization, how do you help companies manage the same level of participation and drive from all the different countries they are in? When we transform a multinational organization, we cannot do it in pieces. There has to be a mandate through a strong sense of leadership at the top. For instance one of our partners, HSBC, just had their first global initiative. They did not have global HRAs, a global marketing plan nor did they have a global financial plan, despite 3000 employees distributed across the globe. This was a daunting task that could never have been accomplished if there was not a strong sense of commitment from the leadership team who made people accountable to make it happen. And they transformed the organization across the world. Today they have a common set of surveys, partners and reports that go out to everyone. One needs to have a strong drive make sure that everyone is part of the undergoing change and is aligned with the strategy. But this does not mean that we ignore cultural differences or local needs. That is what we do through the analysis of data and by the way we consult with those parts of the organizations. While we have the same data; when we come to India to talk we take cultural differences, we take norms that compare you to India into consideration so that we can help you understand what you need to do with the data or how you are going to hire people in the most appropriate way based upon your culture using our standardized tool. HSBCs mantra was if we can get a lot of people to change just a little, it will transform our organization. But they did not want to prohibit any specific geographies dialing down their momentum and so they kept their local global momentum in balance.