Future of AI & HR:

Ever wondered how would you feel if you didn’t have to check your schedule on a day when you are sick? Or do not want to fill up a feedback coming from HR end? AI and Chatbot is the new age HR which will help you to avoid the age old processes in your daily work life.

With the new chatbots coming up employee will be able to send a communication to his/her manager regarding a sick leave and the chatbot will automatically alert all the users w.r.t your schedule. Chatbot will help your manager to align the meetings in your absence.  Gone would be the days when you are writing a mail to HR and waiting for revert. With chatbot you would be able to ask queries or clarifications on any company policy or process and you would be able to get an instant answer.

HR would not be required to send lengthy feedback forms but with the help of chatbot  they would be able to gauge the pulse of the people through set of defined questions. HR including the business leaders would be able to view the responses, which would help them to take necessary intervention. AI will alert the business leaders and HR on how the people are feeling and who are the people who have moved from happy to unhappy zone or even probably have become a fence sitter. Annual Employee Satisfaction Survey will become archaic and real time feedback through AI will become the fashionable thing to be implemented.

The future of performance management will be when employees will share their feedback with chatbot on a regular basis and not fill the long annual performance forms.  Chatbot will be the new friend of all the managers to give them real updated information. HR will also see a transition from people to business and interventions. AI will be the new tool to help HR in decision making. 

Chatbots on mobile phones will revolutionise the way we work and will become a key ask from Gen Z/Millenials.

HR Trends:2017

As we usher into another year, let’s welcome 2017 with open minds, free thoughts and network clouds to understand the complexities that we deal with everyday. 2017 will witness more technology, financial and human disruptions. With Amazon Go, PayPass, Digital Wallet & with latest UPI/BHIM transactional modes coming into mainstream, it will require people capabilities and competencies to be constantly upgraded to remain ahead of the mind game.

Let’s look at some of the competencies, capabilities and trends which would be necessary to add in 2017:

• Learning Agility- People need to be constantly upgraded on the latest happenings around the world and should always in hunger mode to learn new things. It will require our people to quickly unlearn and learn new things
• Communication - It is of utmost importance for the leadership to be constantly in touch with the employees in a volatile and dynamic business environment. It also means that leadership should also be seen taking feedback and inputs from the people as any idea or suggestion could be a game changing strategy
• Transparency - Companies should ensure that they are having transparent policies and processes as with holding of information or knowledge may be instigator for competition. Having ambiguity or not leading the vision of the organization will not lead to path breaking innovative products
• Data – This year will require HR professional to build more data predictive models and partner with the business to take accurate decisions
• Career Development- Carving clear defined road maps for employees and providing them avenues to learn new things will be very important for quarterly feedback, performance management and as retention strategy  
• Reward Practices & Tools- It will be required to innovate more in terms of benefits rather than relying only on money. With more of Gen Z/Millenials in the workplace and the business models it will be required to build HR tools on smartphone, empower them with information through mobile and engage with the employees through apps

Let’s look forward for this New Year as a new opportunity to learn and consequently keep ourselves innovating!

Workplace Bullying!

Workplace bullying or exhibiting unreasonable behavior towards any one is something which is found at every workplace and could be subtle as well. It not only discriminates against the employees but also impacts physical and emotional well being. 

Here are some of signs that will help you understand if you are also one of the victims:

·        Your boss keeps a record of your negatives/mistakes rather than focusing on the positives
·         You don’t want to talk to certain people and avoid confrontation with them
·         You tend to show your frustration at some other place or person
·         Your boss/colleague takes all the credit of your work
·         There is a lot of yelling at workplace and you feel threatened, humiliated or insulted
·         You are not invited to meetings or lunch discussions
·         You feel you want to take a break for mental health

Every employee should be treated respectfully at work and with dignity. In case you have felt any of these signs you need to immediately contact your senior management/harassment committee for quick resolution to your problems. Corporates need to immediately address this issue and come up with anti-bullying policy which addresses the concerns and list the consequences.

HRnomics!

HRnomics or the economic principles of strategic human resources management are those basic rules of our business strategy, which align the people strategy with the business profitability. It is commonly seen that business houses and startups are focusing intensely on generating cash and reducing operational cost, however, what is seen missing in this roller-coaster ride are the people who are the fuel to drive these cash engines.

Though we have a huge supply of workforce in the market but still the demand across the industries is not being fulfilled and there is a supply gap of skilled resources. We should focus on the internal development and grooming of the current workforce to meet these demands.  It is required that the business houses need to frame career plans for the employees and put the employees in charge of their careers. Investments are much needed in the career development plan and learning/certifications rather than investing on a new hire. The new investment here is a sunk cost as the resource would take time to groom, be productive and adjust to the culture.  Vice versa if this cost was spent on existing resource it would have taken efficiency and productivity to a next level, which would have resulted in far better engagement levels and appreciated revenue.

Recognition in any form is that incentive, which is a differentiating factor in the employer brand. Rolling out bonuses is a one time key affair, however, regular social recognition of work, profit sharing and employee stock option would have a larger impact on the intrinsic motivational factors.

With the Gen Y/Z/Millennial workforce, there is a huge tradeoff between money and role. Today’s workforce demands more of quality work and enhanced job value rather than being stuck with same job routine. Data has shown that a substantial chunk of employees leave the organization for better defined entrepreneurial roles. Innovation is another factor, which is impacting the workforce market conditions as people nowadays have more exposure to new technologies and platforms to ideate.  Companies need to invest on R&D and create ideation labs and also protect the intellectual rights.

The overall company value depends on the worth of its employees which is directly related to the investments made by company in terms of money (Learning), material (Resources/Tools) and time (Innovation/R&D).

Creating an Inclusive Workplace

Little time ago organizations had started making huge investments to create a diversity department that looks after creating a diverse workforce. This being enabled through exclusive diversity recruitment drives or hiring more women in the workforce at all levels. However, this has started begun to fall flat on the face.  Though, it all started to integrate women into the workforce at multiple career levels however with no or weak implementable policies this is still lacking in the vision of the organizations and respective HR strategies.

Few thoughts which can certainly help to boost the cause:

Realigning Job Description: We should start re drafting the job roles that exist in the organizations to support employees from different races, ethnicities and gender. There are definitely multiple roles (viz back end roles which require minimalistic intervention) that can surely onboard the differently abled employees into the workforce.    

Reward Strategy: Inclusiveness comes from creating right rewarding opportunities for women and ethnic minorities to move up the ladder in key decision making roles without any discrimination.

Job Mentorship: Identifying mentors at job to identify these gender role bias issues and getting it resolved. These mentors should be able to guide the mentees for key decisions and help remove biases at workplace.

Life/Work Balance & Part Time Working:  Creating inclusive is through the work practices that exist at the workplace which includes part time working (And getting full salary) for the mothers who re join organization. This helps them to balance their personal life while taking care of the newly born along with the business. It does not necessary mean flexi policies exist only for women but for the male workforce also who take turns to help their family, be it children’s school or other family related issues that need to be catered to.

We need to be inclusive in our thoughts, decisions and policies to create such an environment rather than only talking about them in papers or business talks with no implementable practices. Once we are free from all these biases in our thoughts we would no longer need exclusive diversity departments to make it happen.

EEW!: Empowering Entrepreneurship at Work

Exhibiting entrepreneurship at work is an attitude. No matter where and which place you are in, the attitude will never die. It challenges your inner thoughts and never asks you to adapt rather it embraces critical thoughts, reasoning, innovation and continuous improvement.

How do you empower your employees to be innovative and act as entrepreneurs in your organization? An engaged and empowered entrepreneur will not only increase the company’s profitability but also be more productive and satisfied. As always, The Culture of the organization defines these values and nurtures innovation. If innovation , freedom and democracy is in the core DNA of the organization it would never fail.

Now, how do you define or propagate this unique culture-

Promote wacky ideas- In the team meeting, do not put your foot down on some bizarre idea, rather as a mentor see the dollar value and nurture it. This helps in identifying the entrepreneurs and also brings those ideas to see the light of the day.

Act like an owner- Employees should be empowered to take decisions as in a democratic setup and they should be regularly mentored to tackle the issues at the core. Hence, the decision making should be simple and de-centralized.

Socialize the ideas- The idea that you believe is crazy may be apt for another situation and in future you could use it too. It would be worthy to archive and socialize those ideas for others to dissect and tweak as per their requirements. You never know, it may be a golden boot for others.

Regular Recognition- It is always a wise idea to recognize the ideators of your organization. Go for a social recognition platform and give them their due even though it may be a small idea for you. It helps in employee satisfaction and acts as instigator to think on something new.

Show the mirror- Communicating the right business updates in a timely manner is the key to innovation. Employees would not be able to give you cost effective methods if you don’t show them the real picture or how the future looks like.

Above all this is the leader’s capability to lead by example. If the leader is not open to ‘Open Communication’ channel or receptive to new ideas, you cannot expect your employees to be innovative and exhibit entrepreneurship at work.

  “A loss of entrepreneurial spirit often results in a less fun, creative and passionate work environment”- Michael Kerr (Humor at Work)

The 3Ps at Workplace

“And miles to go before I sleep…. And miles to go before I sleep”

We often wonder and struggle to catch up with miles we have defined for ourselves. Have we ever introspected or tried to find out what actually shapes these miles?

I firmly believe that Power, Positivity and Perseverance are the 3Ps which shape our life and career. Let’s figure out what and how these 3Ps affect our professional and to some extend personal life as well.

‘Power’ is a really strong word which impacts our life to a larger extent. Power as exhibited at workplace can be redefined and clubbed into the below types:

1. Social Power should be the typical characteristic feature of an established leader which I believe is all about leading from the front and giving individualistic authority to the team members. Working in a collaborated fashion will definitely achieve better results and in turn giving intrinsic motivation and recognition to the employee.

2.  Cloud Power is wherein the power and the authority rest at a particular level/person. It’s like clouds at different potentials if come together will end in thunder and lightning. In such type of work groups the decision is always in a top down approach and the team is not empowered which leads to lower motivation in the team.

‘Positivity’ in the ambience, culture and processes of an organization shape its goal and help achieve the targets. A positive workforce is more productive, efficient and innovative. Positivity cannot be inserted in an organization via an external force/method but it is largely governed by its internal practices.  Below are some examples which help reinforce positivity at the workplace:

• Recognition which can be external or internal by creating the relative worthiness of the job person is doing
• Effective Communication is another area which I have seen lacking in many leadership styles due to which there are corridor talks and ultimately leads to negativity around
• Leadership is very important because if as a leader you don’t see a problem at a nascent stage you won’t be able to provide a solution to it. Moving away from the problem is also not the correct leadership style to be exhibited which may send negative vibes in the team
• Listening to the personal and professional needs of the employee helps instill confidence in the leader and the organization
• Supporting your team when needed and helping them to achieve the targets/results create a sense of belonging in the team
• Mentoring is essential if you want to work along with the team to achieve the business outcomes and create an empowered positive workplace

‘Perseverance’ is an essential part which shapes your career. One has to be determined and not buckle down under pressure as it would not help in achieving long term career goals. The biggest obstacle in realizing your dreams is the person himself/herself. If you are confident about your decisions you would sail through even though people will debate, disagree and distract you from the path. Create a career path for yourself and even if you deter from the laid path learn from it and move on.  

  

I am sure the 3Ps will help us both as an organization and as a person to be introspective and create a balanced positive workplace.