The 29th EAPM Congress was held in Lake Bled (4-5 April). Attended by over 500 delegates from 29 European countries, “LoveHR” provided a unifying theme to the Congress. The sight of all participants holding up their “Love HR” cards was an impressive and inspiring picture. It helped set the tone for an upbeat, engaging event both within the Conference Hall, and indeed outside with various social events.
Lucas van Wees, EAPM President (2018-2020), opened the Congress. He argued that HR had to credible, relevant and with a key eye for impact. But, critically, the context in which HR operated today, had to be understood. The big questions of our time were technology energy and climate, demographics and politics (for example, the rise of populism) Lucas was clear “HR can help shape the future workforce”. With over 12 main presentations, two round table discussions, and a series of parallel sessions organised by the Slovenian HR Association, a rich landscape was on offer to delegates. In the forum a variety of sponsor stands generated additional interest. Delegates could even win a brightly coloured gecko at one of the stands. And there was even a fun run for charity around Lake Bled!
Three interrelated themes are highlighted here in order to relay some of the presentation content and main messages of the Congress.
Technology
The potential for HR to access and utilise technological developments seemed all pervasive – affecting most aspects of the HR process.
Recruitment: The first of Tom Haak’s (HR Trend Institute) several technology-based “interesting trends” was The Virtual Job Try Out. He demonstrated how it is increasingly possible to provide potential new recruits with real insight into a possible new job insight via an interactive simulation. The example used from a Dutch cosmetics firm demonstrated the company products but also integrated a number of ‘tasks’ and in this way providing both new recruit and company with useful pre-selection data.
Wouter Van Linden (KPMG) provided Congress with insight into how KPMG have developed the onboarding process to address the clear, research evidence of the challenges facing organisations recruiting new people. Using a combination of traditional approaches (induction days, welcome information, buddy system) together with social media, gamification and regular survey data to assess expectations, perception of promises made etc. have seen real impact upon performance and retention. Particularly interesting was KPMG’s use of technology to introduce pre-start Welcome App. For KPMG There can be a period of 6 – 9 months from signing a contract to starting work. The App maintains a link with the new hires, providing information and a level of engagement with the company as the countdown to starting. KPMG have seen a real benefit in losing fewer people and in ensuring a level of engagement at day 1.
Illustration of ‘Jobinson Crusoe’, a talent attraction game developed by IBM for a public sector client, enabled Martin Klaub (IBM Germany) to show how a “serious game” was designed to test capability to act in certain ways that the client wanted. The game can be easily accessed via an app or laptop and consists of a series of short rounds where the player takes responsibility to organise a group of people stranded on the island to different tasks. The example provides a good example of how gamification can be used in a very targeted way for talent attraction when required skills and behaviours have been defined in a very detailed way
There was an underpinning clear message: the value of tailor made and fit for purpose applications of technology to the recruitment process.
L&D: Ever wondered if the surgeon about to perform an operation knows exactly what he/she should be doing? Worry no more as Tom Haak, demonstrated an example of the increasing use of micro learning “at the moment it is needed” for gall bladder surgery! Tom described this as “learning in the flow of work”. Designed on the basis of performance analytics the micro learning sequence, might ask a couple of questions and depending on the reply offer a bite size chunk of learning – e.g. a short video. In this example it might be to show the critical elements in this particular surgical manoeuvre. More broadly Tom argued that L&D is lagging behind in the application of technology in this way. There was huge potential for tailor made micro-learning to be used in a wide range of workplaces.
Performance and Talent Management: Possibly slightly scary for some in the audience were the examples Tom Haak provided of trackers being used to monitor performance. A number of police forces, for example, equip their officers with trackers. When called to a crime scene the tracker can indicate agitation levels which may be to the detriment of performance. They provide immediate feedback to the officer to enable him / her to take appropriate action. Prescriptive analytics is rapidly developing. Tom’s example here was from an emergency call centre. The data from extensive analysis of where they were successful (saving lives etc) and where they were unsuccessful is u8sed to prescribe to employees how they should behave. “Follow the protocol”, the script, and this will ensure best performance.
Elsewhere Richard Farkas (Co-creator CultureConnector) argued that we have known the importance of cultural diversity and complexities within organisations for some time; widely acknowledged as problematic. Using an interactive engagement tool (menti.com) delegates provided a rich array of cross-cultural mistakes that they had witnessed in their organisations. Richard’s key message was that the capability of data analytics today provided a means to measure cultural diversity much more effectively; the resulting analysis being used to more effectively manage culture issues.
Martin Klaub drew Congress’ attention to ‘Myca’, a career advisor app developed by IBM’s Watson Analytics. Myca is a unique tool that uses artificial intelligence to provide personalized career advice, career planning, and career development to employees of different organizations across various industries. It encourages internal mobility leading to retention of skilled works and saving on hiring costs of external employees. Myca links into any company’s HR information system and as Martin explained Myca “knows you”. He also referred to a latest innovation ‘Cogni-Pay’ which uses AI to assess performance and skills and to make recommendations on career potential, remuneration etc, although any final decision rests with a real person!
Role and positioning of HR
Themes covered by speakers in relation to this challenging issue ranged from the need for HR to be “agile”, through leadership implications and HR’s business orientation.
Agile HR: A panel of speakers comprising Natal Dank (Agile HR Community), Laura Klancnik (BSH Home Appliances) and Mojca Domiter (Atlantic Grupa) engaged the audience (again using menti.com) for their views on agile HR. The panel used these responses to help them advance their own thinking and experience. Natal, for example, argued powerfully that we needed to debunk some of the myths surrounding the ‘agile HR’ hype. A core mind-set she suggested was that of “finding out what works”. This was echoed by Laura Klancnik. Agile HR is about “using common sense”. Mojca Domiter raised the point about the increasing need, particularly in the large organisations, for multi-functional teams and by implication HRs role in working throughout the organisation to foster and develop such working. Natal pointed to the example of Vistaprint who have sought to transform their organisation through ‘agile’. Importantly, this ‘agile’ mindset has also been embraced in HR. So, there has been a change in name from HR to Talent & Experience (T&E) and which is fully embedded in the business itself. Vistaprint have reconceived the T+E function in terms of generating and continuously improving products, rather than executing time-limited processes or projects; for instance, the “employee experience” at Vistaprint is conceived as a T&E product. See the full article at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2018/04/06/transforming-hr-as-agile-business-partner-the-case-of-vistaprint/#3cf39236ed6d
The need for HR to be able to experiment and undertake discovery work was also advocated as a key ‘Agile HR’ attribute. In an example from performance appraisal Nica relayed her experience of exploring with staff the relationship between performance and reward, experimenting with different ways of giving feedback and rather than a big bang change introducing a pilot where one key step was to remove the quarterly bonuses. The discovery, experimenting and data gathering phase “just flipped it” according to Natal and enabled the organisation to buy into this change and also look to next steps.
Creative HR Leadership: This dimension to ‘Agile HR’ appeared to have much in common with Dr Pierre Casse’s (IECD Bled School of Management) notion of creative HR leadership. A key message was that HR had a role helping create and mould the organisation of tomorrow. Casse entertained the audience with his views that no top leader should be in post for more than 5 years. “They become sick!” He also argued that it was time to revisit the shibboleth that was team leadership, provocatively suggesting that we had been brainwashed as to the benefits of team work. Specifically, as regards how HR might equip itself for the challenge three main implications emerged:
– The need for courage to speak up, to challenge
– The need to help create an ethical working environment; one which emphasised dignity and respect for all employees and above all
– To make sure that all assumptions used in the past are reviewed and challenged.
The ‘Business’ challenge: An underpinning theme from several presentations relating to HR’s role and challenges was to maintain a keen eye on the business. Nowhere was this more apparent than in Milena Dulanovic’s personal story of moving from HR partner to General Manager at Elipa 2 (a subsidiary of Outfit 7). Many Congress participants were familiar with one of Outfit 7’s products, an app featuring ‘Talking Tom’ (the first app, Talking Tom Cat, launched in July 2010, has now generated more than 9 billion downloads). A key factor in her appointment as General Manager, as reported by other business heads, was that Milena “knew about people”. In no way did she want to leave HR behind. In her new role, she explained her desire to try and balance admin and finance with the people side of the business. Her message to Congress was clear: “HR professionals should constantly think about what value they can bring to their employees”, and if they manage to do this it will be of real organisational benefit.
Digitisation of people data was key to enabling an agile organisation which could ensure competitive advantage. This was the message of Natasa Centa and Mojca Hafner Jereb, representing Cetrta Pot, in one of the parallel sessions run by the Slovenian HR Association. “The path to agile business operations starts with lean operations and this entails the engagement of employees in HR management…. valid data which can be viewed at any point along a timeline are a tremendous advantage for an organisation’s strategic planning.” The presenters argued that Gen Y and Gen Z employees were much more amenable and capable of engaging in their own HR management. Cetrta Pot are a leading Slovenian company specialising in information systems and also fare collection in public passenger transport.
Respect: Respect was a key message of a particularly inspirational presentation from Emil Tedeschi, CEO of Atlantic Grupa. Drawing on his experience establishing and developing the organisation he argued powerfully that the intangible assets of the business were far bigger than any on the balance sheet. Whilst acknowledging there were constraints in ant business ultimately it was critical for employees to ‘feel free in work’. The opposite was to feel to feel captured. But this couldn’t be imposed – it was about establishing and sticking to values which centred around self-respect and respect for other people’s choices.
HR Tensions and Challenges
This third section highlights some of the challenges and tensions in relation to the HR issues and developments discussed at Congress. There is a danger, for example, that we get side-tracked by the wonders of new technology and overlook what is really fit for purpose and also some the darker implications for organisational life and society more generally. Indeed, Pierre Casse’s views of life tomorrow at times bordered on the dystopian. He predicted billions will become useless as technology takes over their jobs. The deep learning capabilities in computing meant AI was increasingly capable of controlling us. This issue of whether technology is an empowering or controlling force cannot be sidestepped. If prescriptive analytics means employees must “follow the protocol” (Tom Haak) does this inevitably mean a reduction in the quality of work, making it increasingly routinised and lacking in autonomy and decision making. At EAPM Congress two years ago Agnès Parent-Thirion – Senior Research Manager at Eurofound – indicated that roughly one-fifth of employees reside in poor quality jobs and notes “very slow progress” in enhancing quality. Few speakers challenged the prevailing assumption that all HR efforts are geared towards policy and practice in a knowledge economy. Few questioned that HR’s principal challenges were not those of workplaces which have been are being ‘transformed’ by new technologies, new forms of work organisation and a new generation of management thinking that stresses flexibility, quality, teamwork and empowerment
Tom Haak also raised the concerning prospect of organisations being able to monitor employee behaviour minute by minute and indeed to assess factors like organisational mood by analysing emails.
This seems completely odds with the aspirations of Emil Tedeschi that employees need to “feel free at work”. Taking a big picture view the power of technology to ‘personalise’ and thus enable HR policies and actions to be geared to the individual rather than the collective raises uncomfortable questions. Is organisational success best obtained by sacrificing a sense collectivism and replacing it entirely with individualism? Casse suggested we had been brainwashed on team work and if trackers can analyse our every move where is the value of a team ‘pulling together’? It is perhaps much easier to simply focus on the performance of 6 individuals rather than the team. But at what price to the social side of organisational life and to communities of practice etc?
And so, returning to one of the central themes of Congress a critical question for HR is surely how technology can be deployed and harnessed to increase both inclusivity and the quality of work for large numbers of todays employees.
An inspirational finale
John Amaechi closed the last day of Congress with an inspiring story of a dream, determination and hard work.
His theme was transformation – personal and organisational. As regards HR he provided insights to help a move from being transactional to transformational. John is an organisational psychologist and CEO of Amaechi Performance Systems. Prior to founding his own firm John spent several years as a professional athlete, becoming the first British person to play in the National Basketball Association (NBA).
The Slovenian HR Association
The Congress was hosted by the Slovenia HR Association, together with Planet GV who organize business education in fields of HR, leadership, and communication. A parallel series of workshops accompanied the main proceedings. A highlight of Day 1 was the presentation of their annual awards. The picture features (from left to right) Peter Ribarič, Executive Director of Planet GV; Eva Cvelbar Primožič HR manager of the year 2018, Kolektor Group; Nataša Bazjak Cristini, HR manager of the year 2019, Atlantic Grupa; Gregor Rajšp, President of Slovenian HR Association.
The 30th EAPM Congress will take place in Vilnius, Lithuania in 2021. We are looking forward to seeing you there!