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Josh Bersin
The world of work has been disrupted in ways I've never seen. We're working many more
hours (we've lost an entire week of vacation time since 2000), employees feel overwhelmed
(40% of US workers believe their work is "highly stressful"), and more and more people are
taking on gig-work and alternative work arrangements continue. And everywhere we go we
find software, robots, and AI changing jobs, forcing us all to reinvent ourselves. (Read the
article "Catch the Wave, 21st Century Careers" for more on this.)
What is HR's new role in all this change and how can HR add the most value? Our latest
research, "High-Impact HR", helps explain what HR should be doing about all this.
First let me be clear: HR departments are scrambling to keep up. In many ways HR is a "no-
win" profession: when things go well management takes the credit, and when things go poorly,
HR is often blamed.
Consider all the things Human Resources is expected to do: find and hire talented people
quickly, onboard and train employees to rapidly become productive, develop managers to
become good coaches, drive programs to improve diversity and fairness, make sure pay is fair
and competitive, arrange great benefits and perks, and build a work environment that is
rewarding, enjoyable, and inspiring. And all the while HR has to maintain good records, make
sure global payroll works flawlessly, and comply with legal and compliance regulations in
provinces, counties, and countries around the world.
The Hard Things are the "transactional" issues at work: getting people screened and hired,
posting job descriptions, building a career portal, running the payroll, making sure compliance
training is done, getting people to do appraisals, and correctly handling employee grievances,
safety issues, and terminations. These processes, including things like benefits administration,
onboarding, alumni management, and employee communications, are very complicated and
transactional, and people get very upset if they aren't done well. HR cannot ignore them and
we must make sure they're done correctly every single time.
The Soft Things are the "people centric" challenges at work: making sure performance
management is done in a positive way, training new managers to be effective, building a
leadership and executive pipeline, assessing culture and engagement, understanding turnover
and productivity, and diagnosing complex issues like theft, harassment, lack of diversity,
collaboration, innovation, and employment brand. These "soft issues" are becoming more
important every day, and while they are the areas where HR can be the most creative and
consultative, they often have to be squeezed into available time and budget, while the "hard
stuff" gets done first.
Whether we like it or not, HR teams spend a lot of time on transactional work. Our new
research shows that 41% of HR professionals' time is spent on "transactional activities," 40%
on "talent and people," and 19% on "workplace and work." HR teams are trying hard to fix
this: respondents told us they plan to reduce the transactional work (moving from 41% to 30%
over the next 3 years) in an effort to focus on people, culture, and the workplace.
As you look at the maturity model below you'll see a clear trend: the more time you spend on
non-transactional work, the more impact HR will have. Level 4 companies spend only 29% of
their overall time on transactional work, while level 1 companies are spending 58%! So if you
Most of my research shows that today the Soft Things matter more than ever. Research by
the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that almost 90% of US stock market value is now driven
by intellectual property, services, and brand. These are all "people-driven" issues, implying
that regardless of the business you are in, "people are your product."
Added to this simple fact is the real issue that employee productivity has become a problem.
This industrial revolution (the "digital era" we live in today), is actually the least productive
revolution we have seen (the invention of the steam engine, electricity, and the original
computer drove more output per hour of work). So the pressure is on: how do we help people
get more done at work?
After nearly two years surveying more than 1,000 organizations, studying nearly 100 talent
and HR practices, and correlating lots of data about how companies run HR against
profitability, revenue growth, and other financial metrics, we figured out what leading
companies do. Truly effective HR organizations are taking on a whole new identity. They
are focusing on simplification, design, culture, and productivity. Yes they are still doing the
"hard things" well, but more and more of their time has spent automating and simplifying these
"must do" activities so they can focus on design, culture, coaching, leadership, and values.
This is a transformation we call "High-Impact HR," and it represents a manifesto for the HR
department. But it doesn't only apply to HR. High-Impact HR gives us insights into being a
better manager, running IT and other business functions effectively, and focusing your entire
business. We found seven key practices that differentiate these high performing companies.
These seven findings are inspiring to think about - but how do we get there from here? What
specifically can HR departments do to address this "disrupted work" world we operate in
today? And how far are you from "high-impact?"
Let me show you our new maturity model. After analyzing data from more than 1,000
organizations, we correlated and grouped the practices into four categories, and found the
aggregate looks like this:
As you can see from this data, almost half the companies we surveyed are still operating in
what we call an "unintentional" or "survival mode." Companies at level 1 companies are just
trying to keep the lights on in HR: they are focused on the "Hard Things," and are quickly
reacting to the needs of management. Many of these companies are fragmented (they have
small HR groups distributed into different business units); many are underfunded (they might
Level 2 companies are more organized and professionalized -- they hire leaders in the domain
specialties (head of recruiting, learning, compensation and benefits, organizational design,
etc.) and they buy and build tools to scale without personal interaction at every point. They
may have an employee self-service portal, a cloud-based HCM system, and they are starting
to get reliable HR data.
At level 3 companies the organization has the time and perspective to "catch its breath" and
can focus on culture, change, and the need to build management muscle, productivity, and
updates to the organizational model to drive innovation and performance. These companies
tend to be companies that have marched up the ladder from Level 1 to Level 2 over many
years, and their CHRO or VP of HR is tightly linked to senior business leaders, focused on
driving business results, not just compliance and operational HR excellence.
At level 4, companies are becoming experimental, they are pioneering new ideas, and they are
building and buying technology in sprints or agile projects. One of our clients tried three
different performance management programs, for example (one with no ratings, one with
numeric ratings, and one with qualitative ratings), and used this experiment to decide what to
roll out globally. Another developed its new career model through a "hackathon" and
crowdsourced ideas to help build a better career experience for employees. These companies
may be using behavioral economics or advanced analytics to learn how to "nudge" employees
into more productive behavior; they are partnering with IT to deliver innovative new learning
solutions, and much more.
Progressing up these four levels takes senior leadership commitment, investment, and
continuous effort. The CHRO must lead the charge, aligned with business leaders and bringing
the HR team together into a cohesive unit.
The research has lots of detail, but let me conclude with a simple message. Today's "disrupted
world of work" demands leadership, creativity, and passion from HR. The days of HR teams
wishing for a "seat at the table" are over: you've been given the opportunity to lead. High-
Impact HR professionals should lead a crusade to make the work experience productive,
engaging, and rewarding. Business leaders will be thrilled.
I know that HR professionals are up to this challenge, and I hope this research gives you
inspiration and ideas to "rethink the disrupted world of work" in your own organization.
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About the Author: Josh Bersin is the founder and Principal of Bersin by Deloitte,
Deloitte Consulting LLP, a leading research and advisory firm focused on corporate
leadership, talent, learning, and the intersection between work and life. Josh is a