Category: HR Administration

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My Second HR Conference: Finally Getting the Hang of It

Andie Burjek, Working Well blog

I attended HR Tech this year in Chicago, and to a certain degree it was overwhelming — that is, there were so many companies and solutions it was hard to keep track until I’d had my morning coffee and then some. But throughout the meetings, interviews and lectures, I noticed a few key themes that just kept on coming up.

First of all: women in tech. The conference kicked off on Tuesday morning with four hours and four lectures on women in HR tech. The speakers mentioned unconscious bias in the workplace, expectation differences for men and women, and how when women are assertive it’s seen much differently than when men are assertive. Based on the reactions by women in the room and the whisper-comments people made to each other, this is obviously a reality for a lot of working women, especially in the tech sector.

Workforce‘s Rick Bell also commented on the theme of women in tech in his HR Tech blog: But I want to focus on one totally different angle. Rewind a few days: My friend calls me on the phone to give me very exciting news. Her company is sending her abroad for two weeks to work on a project. She made it clear this had nothing to do with that “lean in crap.”

(Note: I still don’t understand “lean in.” A dozen people have described it to me in very, very different ways. Media outlets either tout it as an effective strategy or as some classist dribble. I have too little interest in reading self-help books to read and interpret it myself. Anyway, this obviously came from a person who has one of those negative perceptions of leaning in.)

She could attribute it to something else, though: she asked. She emailed the team leader a while back. She said she was interested and would be willing to go even though it wasn’t technically her project. Out of the blue they contacted her a month later telling her she was going across the ocean.

At the HR Tech conference, the female leaders also echoed the importance of asking. If you don’t ask for something, you won’t get it. Good advice for women, of course, looking for opportunities to grow at work, but it can also be applied to anybody looking for an opportunity.

I also spoke with Caroline Turner, chief revenue officer of PowerToFly, a company launched in 2014 which connects talented women in tech to companies that value gender diversity and inclusion. She attended college as an athlete under Title IX, appreciated the equal opportunity this gave her and has that same passion for gender equality now in the workplace.

This conversation around diversity was very valuable, and one of the key points of interest for me was the importance of getting diverse talent in the door at the very beginning, when recruiting. Hiring people just because they’re diverse isn’t the best business move, but bringing in a pool of candidates who look different from each other can go a long way.

Second of all: rethinking recruiting. I noticed a lot of companies working in recruiting, and they’re looking to solve the same problem: how to hire the right people. But I liked the way Bob Schultz, general manager of the smarter workforce at IBM, described it in our interview. He mentioned the importance of taking a “holistic” approach to recruiting — that is, going beyond just past experience and the usual considerations. How about considering behavior and problem solving skills? IBM Watson has the capabilities to take the whole person into account in the recruiting process.

I liked the use of this word. Holistic. Just like companies are more often now taking a holistic approach to wellness (considering aspects like physical health, mental health, financial health, and beyond), apparently the same thing can be said about other business processes.

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Discourse Matters When Politics Enter the Conversation

Jon Hyman The Practical Employer

My 8-year-old son hates Donald Trump. I know hate is a strong word. I rarely use it (except when describing the most evil of all condiments, mustard. I hate mustard).WF_WebSite_BlogHeaders-11

But, Donovan hates Donald Trump. All you have to do is mention his name, and he will tell you how much he hates The Donald, and how he has no room in his life for anyone who thinks any differently.

Over the months of listening to our son tell us of his hatred for Trump we never thought to ask why. Until we did.

His answer? If Trump wins he will ban people from other countries from coming to America, and then Zarah will never be able to visit us again.

Zarah is our German daughter. We hosted her as a foreign exchange student three years ago, and she lived with us for 10 months. We visited with her and family in Germany last summer, and last month she returned with her sister for a three-week visit. We love Zarah as our own daughter, and Donovan certainly loves her as his big sister.

And he cannot stomach the thought of Trump winning, implementing his immigrant ban, and not seeing Zarah again. Hence, his hatred of Donald Trump.

Employers, words matter. They may not get you sued in many situations, and, when sued, it takes a lot for an employee to win, but make no mistake, they matter. What you say, or condone others saying, at work about race, sex, religion, immigrants and national origin, disability, age, politics, they all matter, because they all set the tone.

Yet, rarely do those words create liability. In the words of one court, “The pluralism of our society is mirrored in the workplace, creating endless occasions for offense. Civilized people refrain from words and conduct that offend the people around them, but not all workers are civilized all the time. Title VII is not a code of civility.”

No, our workplace laws are not civility codes, but that does not provide us an excuse to behave uncivilized.

So, yes, Donovan hates Donald Trump, and, in his mind, he has good reason to do so. Your employees might suffer similar offense from the words they hear others utter in your workplace.

Just because those words might not be actionable does not mean you should not take action. First, your inaction might lead to liability. But, more importantly, your inaction and inattention signals that you condone, or worse yet, agree with the message.

That is not the type of employer you should want to be, and it not the type of employer for which your employees will want to work.

Jon Hyman is a partner at Meyers, Roman, Friedberg & Lewis in Cleveland. To comment, email editors@workforce.com. Follow Hyman’s blog at Workforce.com/PracticalEmployer.

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Illinois, Texas A&M University and Wisconsin Top HR Master’s Programs List

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The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign was recognized as the top master’s in HR program by College Choice. Photo credits: UI Public Affairs

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Texas A&M University and the University of Wisconsin top the 2016 ranking for the Best Master’s in Human Resources Degree Programs, according to College Choice, which provides college and university rankings and resources.

“[Human resources managers] plan, manage, and enforce the policies and rules that govern a given organization. They are also responsible for recruiting, interviewing, hiring, and, yes, firing too,” said Christian Amondson, managing editor of Eugene, Oregon-based College Choice, in a statement. “That’s why it’s so important for HR professionals to get an education that prepares them to help manage a company’s employees with compassion and a strategy.”

College Choice stated that it curated its 2016 ranking for Best Master’s in Human Resources Degree Programs by collecting information from individual school websites, other ranking sites, and the U.S. News and World Report site.

The rankings, listed alphabetically, are as follows:

Baruch College, New York City

California State University Long Beach, Long Beach, California

Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland

Cornell University, Ithaca, New York

DePaul University, Chicago,

Florida International University, Miami

Howard University, Washington, D.C.

La Roche College, Pittsburgh

Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles

Loyola University Chicago, Chicago

Manhattanville College, Purchase, New York

Marquette University, Milwaukee

Mercyhurst University, Erie, Pennsylvania

Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan

Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois

Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio

Pace University, New York City

Pepperdine University, Malibu, California

Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana

St. Louis University, St. Louis

Stanford University, Stanford, California

Temple University, Philadelphia

Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas

Towson University, Towson, Maryland

University of Chicago, Chicago

University of Houston, Houston

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, Illinois

University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky

University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland

University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota

University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

University of Rhode Island, Kingston, Rhode Island

University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina

University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee

University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, Texas

University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio

University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin

Utah State University, Logan, Utah

Vanderbilt University, Nashville

Villanova University, Villanova, Pennsylvania

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Benchmarking: The Compass to Navigate the Future of Work

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By integrating benchmarks into everyday tasks, HR leaders can make informed decisions based on data-driven HCM metrics. Illustration by Jakub JirsĂĄk

Providing the right mix of competitive rewards to attract and retain talented employees can be like shooting arrows in the dark: You try to take aim but can easily miss your target.

Unfortunately, this metaphor applies to many of today’s HR practitioners, who still rely on educated guesses and trial-and-error methods to build and engage a high-performing workforce. Benchmarking can improve your HR aim. It can be a compass that shows business leaders how their company’s offerings — to the market and to employees — compare to competitors and the industry.

Timely benchmarks have historically been hard to find and limited in scope due to practical and technological limitations. As a result, HR leaders have underutilized benchmarks to guide decision-making. Fortunately, that’s changing. With the rise of big data and HR analytical tools that transform information into actionable insights, benchmarking now is a strategic asset for workforce management.

Big data is improving benchmarking by providing more relevant, recent and reliable information that can help HR professionals better understand their organization’s competitive positioning externally. It also can help them compare metrics among different business units and teams internally. Before advancements in data aggregation, benchmarking typically involved fielding surveys that could take months to plan, execute and validate.

Today, data aggregation involves massive volumes of data that — when analyzed — support a broader spectrum of human capital management activities. Using data science can make it cheaper and easier to generate and use benchmark data. As a result, HR leaders have greater access to high-quality benchmarking data they can use to guide their team’s daily work.

One increasingly popular use of benchmarks: using it to address high employee turnover rates. For example, analysis of workforce data may reveal that a company is experiencing high turnover rates for certain functions and that the root cause for many may be their search for higher compensation.

Here’s the good news: New data visualization tools and enhanced graphic user experiences make benchmarks more approachable and intuitive to the average HR user than ever before. With simple data visuals, HR practitioners can more accurately interpret the results of benchmark analysis.

A merger or acquisition is a prime example of how workforce management benchmarks can impact cross-functional business activities and give an employer a competitive advantage. Given that employee compensation is one of the biggest expenses for most organizations, benchmarks can provide clarity on what competitive compensation levels look like for hiring and paying employees in new or unfamiliar markets. HR leaders can use those benchmarks to rationalize and standardize compensation strategies for the newly combined company.

Beyond compensation, mergers and acquisitions also open up other opportunities to leverage benchmarks as strategic guides. Benchmarks can help establish criteria, such as rates of high absenteeism, to help identify employees who may leave a company after the transition. In addition, HR leaders can leverage benchmarks to compare a company’s post-merger turnover rate with competitors to gain insights that will help refine their talent retention strategies. Another example is ratios of support staff to lines of business and spans of control benchmarks that can help optimize a post-merger business structure. These types of benchmarks provide guides on how the organization can lead sizing efforts.

Business leaders look to HR to deliver strategic insights that assess workforce conditions and inform forward planning. By integrating benchmarks into everyday tasks, HR leaders can make informed decisions based on data-driven HCM metrics. In an evolving and competitive recruitment market, benchmarks can provide important guides to help companies seek and build a high-performing workforce that will drive long-term growth.

Modern data science and HR analytics tools can help companies take more accurate aim at the available talent pool and, potentially, increase the number of times they hit the target.

David Turetsky is vice president of ADP DataCloud product management.

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Venture Capital’s Love Affair With HR Tech Rolls On

VentureCapital-400_600If you ever dreamed of starting an innovative new HR technology company but worried you couldn’t secure the capital, now is the time to make your dreams come true.

The venture capital world is doling out deals to these companies at a record pace with no signs of slowing down. Both funding and deal activity hit new highs in 2015, with firms landing $2.4 billion across 383 deals. That follows similar high rates of investment in 2013 and 2014 alike.

It’s not surprising, said Holger Mueller, principal analyst and vice president at Constellation Research. “Investing in HR tech is a strong model from a macroeconomic perspective,” Mueller said. He argued that a number of talent-focused business trends, including the aging workforce, war for talent, breakdown of performance management strategies and the need to drive retention and productivity makes HR technology an easy sell for investors. “Every company needs better talent.”

According to CB Insights, a venture capital and angel investment database, HR technology firms by the end of the first quarter of 2016 already had received roughly $600 million in venture capital across 106 deals. The deals this year include on-demand hiring startup SnagAJob, which raised $100 million in Series E funding; recruitment marketplace Hired, which raised $40 million in a Series C round; and background-checking platform Checkr, which raised $40 million in a Series B round.

Looking back, 2015 presented a similar spending spree, according to CB Insights research. Deals ranged from relatively small Series A round funding to start-ups like Lytmus, a virtual machine-based platform for sourcing tech talent that secured $7.2 million in September from Andreessen Horowitz and another partner; to much larger investments, including the $150  million that went to OneSource Virtual, a business process as a service (BPaaS) provider that utilizes Workday technology. That deal was led by Technology Crossover Ventures and closed in June 2015.

The fact that most of these companies are cloud-based makes even tiny start-ups a viable option in the eyes of investors, especially as demand for cloud-based HR solutions continues to rise. More than 40 percent of all companies are currently in the process of replacing their core HR technology with cloud systems, according to Deloitte’s 2016 Global Human Capital Trends report. The move will lessen their reliance on on-site infrastructure and allow them to take advantage of innovative new technologies without a significant investment.

“HR is leading the migration to the cloud,” said Wes Bryan, co-founder of OneSource Virtual. “Those legacy systems are going to break down and HR leaders are ready to take chances on where they want to go next.” This transition is enabling greater integration between systems, and more robust talent analytics to help these leaders identify talent trends and improve the employee experience.

Cloud-based companies also require a lot less overhead to ramp up so their leaders can focus more on developing innovative solutions rather than ramping up infrastructure, Mueller said. “Two guys in a Starbucks can build a product and reach HR decision makers in a matter of months.” That’s good news for HR leaders looking for new solutions to their HR problems, because it is easier for companies to take a risk on a cloud-based vendor, he said. “If it doesn’t work they just don’t renew the contract.”

Performance Management and Payroll

Venture capitalists are particularly interested in companies offering performance management solutions that promise to make this process faster, easier and less awful for employees. “Everyone agrees that performance management is broken,” Mueller said. “There is definitely an opportunity for disruption in this space.” One company drawing a lot of attention — and capital — is Zugata, a provider of mobile software that lets employees provide and receive performance feedback on their smartphones. The company secured $3.1 million for General Catalyst and other investors in October 2015, a mere 10 months after its initial launch.

The key benefit is that the feedback flows in an easy ongoing process, rather than a once a year event, which is less annoying and more useful, according to Zugata co-founder Srinivas Krishnamurti. “We think it’s more important to help employees develop versus just giving them a pay raise. They need to understand what they’re good at and not good at,” Krishnamurti told Fortune.

Start-ups that are willing to play a longer game are also finding some success in the ripe-for-disruption payroll sector dominated by ADP. Gusto, the payroll and benefits service provider (formerly ZenPayroll), raised $50 million in December 2015 and another $25 million in March. “They are modernizing the way companies do payroll,” Mueller said.

HR leaders interested in expanding beyond their current systems should see these investments as an opportunity to dabble with new innovative solutions and see what sticks, Bryan said. “It can be scary to take a chance on a start-up, but you’ve got to take risks if you want to move your business forward.”

Despite financial woes, a battering in the media and the loss of CEO Parker Conrad, Zenefits is still the most well-funded HR technology firm of the past five years. To date, the cloud-based health insurance and HR software provider has secured $584 million in multiple funding rounds.

“Even after losing two-thirds of its value, Zenefits is still a good investment,” Mueller said.

Sarah Fister Gale is a writer based in the Chicago area. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com.

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2016 Game Changer: Kathryn Minshew

Children are often told that they can be anything they want to be when they grow up. It’s a lovely idea that is meant to encourage kids to dream big and try new things. But when the time comes to realize those dreams, the tools to discover and realize a satisfying career aren’t always available.

At least that was Kathryn Minshew’s experience.

WF_0815_GameChangerLogoAfter receiving her bachelor’s degree in political science and French from Duke University, Minshew began working as a management consultant at McKinsey & Co. But when she began contemplating the next steps in her career path, she struggled to find a resource to guide her.

“I began having these conversations among small groups of close friends, and we came to the realization that there needed to be a resource that addressed millennial needs in particular,” Minshew said. “This group wants and needs something different from the career experience than in years past.”

That frustration led to inspiration and the eventual creation of The Muse, an online career resource that offers a behind-the-scenes look at job opportunities with hundreds of companies, expert career advice and access to personalized career help. Unlike traditional career sites, The Muse creates photo and video profiles of companies that provide in-depth insight into a company’s culture and mission.

WF_0816_GC_Kathryn Minshew Group Selfie“Job hunting is like dating,” Minshew said. “I’m not romantically compatible with every person in the world. In the same way, a single applicant is not compatible with every company. These photos and videos are meant to provide insight into how an applicant will fit in at a company. It’s about more than the ability to perform a job task.”

This focus on culture has made the site wildly popular with millennials, who value culture highly when making career decisions. The company has helped over 50 million people in their job searches and career planning. While that number and the company’s subsequent success is impressive, Minshew, 30, said she is more concerned with the individual lives her efforts are changing.

“Being satisfied with your career path is such a huge part of a person’s life,” Minshew said. “Career is paramount to how people see themselves. I see the job search as a human problem, so it’s exciting to build tools to help people find satisfaction in their lives.”

Comment below or email editors@workforce.com. Follow Workforce on Twitter at @workforcenews.

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2016 Game Changer: Jason Hite

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In many ways, HR is all about politics: balancing expectations, delicately handling a conflict between two parties and knowing when to say the right thing at the right time. Jason Hite knows politics and human resources.

Hite, 37, has an impressive professional track record for a person of any age. Currently the vice president of Xcelerate Solutions, a government counseling organization, he previously worked in the HR department of the U.S. House of Representatives for about 10 years. He started as an HR generalist and worked his way up to director and eventually chief human resources officer. He also served as a key confidant for three successive chief administrative officers at the House.

“One aspect that is hard to balance in the CHRO role, which Jason does extremely well, is the balance between the needs of the organization and that of the employee,” said Tim Blodgett, deputy sergeant of arms at the U.S. House of Representatives, in his recommendation letter. “While in the perfect world those two interests should align, in a practical sense they can be at odds with each other. Jason was able to act effectively on both fronts.”

Hite, whom Blodgett described as the “definition of a consummate professional,” showed impressive HR expertise in the government. Just like he balanced the needs of the individual and the organization, he also was always skilled at balancing his own types of projects. He understood the importance of working in the group setting with stakeholders and at the same time working autonomously on individual initiatives.

One of his many accomplishments was to help the deputy chief administration officer turn around the struggling payroll and benefits team — a problem that needed a speedy resolution.

“Jason worked tirelessly to stabilize the organization and once again proved his value,” said Ali Qureshi, vice president of consulting services at Xcelerate Solutions and former colleague of Hite at the House, in his nomination letter. “His project management skills were put to the test, and Jason led the turnaround, earning the respect of his peers, management and stakeholders on Capitol Hill.”

After Qureshi left the government position to work for Xcelerate Solutions, Hite eventually joined as well. At the government counseling organization, he first made his mark by using his personable approach and analytical acumen to obtain important certifications at a quick and impressive rate.

“I can confidently say,” Qureshi said, “that we have the best human resources executive in the industry.”

Andie Burjek is a Workforce associate editor. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com. Follow Workforce on Twitter at @workforcenews.

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2016 Game Changer: Jay Caldwell

Jay Caldwell’s hard work and innovative mind earned him two promotions in only 18 months at ADP. In that time, he supported the move to a pay-for-performance culture, whichWF_0815_GameChangerLogo came from his work in creating ADP’s performance management philosophy, strategy and framework. Other projects include creating a strategic workforce planning discipline; developing a change management strategy and training; a real-time feedback tool and conducting webinars.

Leaders took WF_0816_GC_Jay-Caldwellnote. According to Jill Altana, ADP vice president of global talent and development, the CEO of the 55,000-person company noticed Caldwell’s contributions.

“In my entire 30-year career, I have never come across a more talented individual,” she wrote in his application. She added that his innovative thinking, thought leadership and collaboration skills make this 34-year-old a true game changer.

Lauren Dixon is a Workforce associate editor. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com. Follow Workforce on Twitter at @workforcenews.

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The Wacky World of Work: Jack Hanna at SHRM

At SHRM 2016, Workforce Managing Editor James Tehrani spoke with famed zoologist and TV personality Jack Hanna about why he loves HR (it’s the first place he says he goes when he returns to the zoo from a trip), pet insurance, the difficulties of being the source to go to when there’s a tragedy involving animals, how scientists are examining why elephants rarely get cancer and more. Click the video below to watch.

James Tehrani is Workforce’s managing editor. Follow Tehrani on Twitter at @WorkforceJames and like his blog on Facebook at “Whatever Works” blog.