Why Don't HR People Get Metrics?

I’m work with some very talented HR people, very good at what they do and very passionate about their jobs. But the one thing that I have found they all have in common is their lack of understanding or passion about identifying, driving and publishing metrics.

I thought this might have been a limited scale problem in my first HR role. We had recruiters who had no idea their cost per hire or days per hire (and didn’t care anyway). Headcount reports that weren’t trusted (and weren’t accurate, either). Little to no energy put into tracking our performance, with a few exceptions. (I might note the exceptions were the members of the team who were consistently seen as the top performers. Sadly there were not enough of them to move the pile forward, and the resistance was never overcome.)

I spent a good deal of time this month talking about metrics, why they matter, and what makes a good measure of performance. For me, it’s not about the “obvious” things. I don’t care about the number of positions we filled this year, the cost of training materials or number of benefits applications processed in a week. What matters to me are predictive measures, which is where we start to lose people.

So we hired 100 people this month. Fine. Why? Did people leave or are we growing? Let’s say they are replacements. Find out why. Find the measures that will tell us people may leave soon, not that they have left. Low engagement scores are a good one. Percentage of performance reviews completed on time is better, since it gives us good insight into the manager’s effort in engaging their direct reports. How about management turnover? How does that impact overall churn for a group? If it’s a high correlation, we know that we need to spend extra time with a team that just got a new head.

Why track participation rates in benefits? Is that a good predictor of retention? Future costs? What happens if you want to change a benefit? How many people will be impacted?

Too much money spent on a training class? Who is in it, and what impact do they have on the future performance of the company? What’s the historic change in performance for attendees? (Yes, HR sometimes needs to care about job performance outside the department.)

Any other good predictive measures being used out there?

The Two Deadly Words

The two most dangerous words I've heard in the office....

"We're done!"

It is said in a positive way. The Kaizen event week has ended! We cleared out our unused supplies for the 5S program! We finished our training class on managing employees! We're done!

We all know the truth, right? You're never done. Not if you are worth having around. And if you ever think you are really really done, then you just aren't paying attention.

Protect and Promote your Practice

I worked this week with a great group of HR people in building and shaping process maps for the future of our HR function. They have the vision to see many places where centralization and technology can streamline services, reduce costs, empower employees and make the organization more responsive to employee needs overall.

The problem is there are not resources readily available to make that vision a reality. Given the current economic climate, who knows when they will be again? A year? Two? More? How many of the current team will be around to see the change?

I've already heard of companies cutting heads, and sometimes the Lean people go early because they are "overhead" or a "cost center" instead of a profit center. I contend this is our own fault for not positioning ourselves right in the organization.

I met a couple of OD consultants for the Navy (civilians, I should note) who treated their internal practice as a consultancy. After securing backing for two years from their champion in advance, they moved from part of the "overhead" to a service that no one pays for indirectly. They spent those two years building their business, quoting jobs for their internal customers and delivering as if their next contract depended on it. (It did, by the way.)

After less than a year, they were being inundated with requests for their time. (I should also note this was not a new group, just a new approach. They had problems getting traction earlier because they were seen as overhead, and it tainted how the front line managers dealt with them.) They became self sufficient in 9 months. They "repaid" their seed money from the "profits" of their practice, after covering their salaries, benefits, training, conference costs, materials, marketing, etc.

What was the difference? Very little, really. But the perception of the customer base had changed. Their approach to work had changed. They set expectations early in the process and beat their targets. They owned their business and treated their co-workers as their customers. Which they are.

So, how's your practice doing these days? Secure? Or is there a chance you will be swept out with the other consultants who haven't made themselves indispensable?

Kaizen CBA Preparation

I had a request a few months ago to run a Kaizen event to prepare for an upcoming union negotiation. I had never used the tools and structure quite this way in the past, but it was a rousing success, and the team felt the output was a plan that would serve the best interests of the company and the employees as well.

What an interesting and effective way to use Lean tools. I wonder if there are any other "non-traditional" applications of the tools out there that are worth noting....

Who Needs Generalists?

As I start to pull apart the traditional idea of an HR department, the question I'm struggling with now is: What does a generalist do? Implement programs and policies someone else has written? Oversee the implementation of the work someone else does?

Now, I'm not naïve enough to think there isn't work that needs to be done on the front lines, but does the traditional structure still make sense? My vote is no. Here's why.

First, technology has spread to the point we should be much, much faster in performing routine tasks. We should be able to flatten the HR structure and handle tasks between local HR coordinators and area HR managers.

Second, employees are technically savvy enough to help themselves with most of these tasks. Even the ones we think aren't. We just have to provide a method for them to do so. Think self service, think transparent, think direct line of sight to what is important.

Third, most rules surrounding services are archaic at best. We need simple, flexible programs that don't require a day of training to effectively use.

Fourth, we have line managers who are divorced from HR work because they can be, and are tied up with fat to day operations. Some of that, though, is driven by the lack of well trained, engaged employees. And studies consistently show that an employees relationship with their manager is a strong indicator of engagement and correlated to retention and performance. Imagine if managers had the knowledge, tools and time to be the defacto HR rep for their team. Think that might help?

I can see a day when you are either a specialist (which we will need, thanks to the complexity of compliance requirements, SOX, training needs for emerging workforces, etc.) or an area HR manager that deals with a larger organization. Employee services, at the administrative level, are either handled in a self-service method by the employee or with their manager. The HR team has minimal administrative work, and instead works on training the line managers to be ready to handle employee needs or working on more strategic tasks.

When I talk to young HR professionals and they ask for career advice, I usually start with telling them to spend some time outside of HR if possible. Then, if they want back in, get really well versed in training, talent management or compensation. I think the rest is best outsourced or pushed down to the self-service level.

And the hits keep coming...

*thump*

That's me, hitting my head on the wall.

I need to set up new service on my Blackberry. So I drive to the mall on a Saturday afternoon to visit the company owned wireless store. Not a franchise, mind you, but an honest-to-goodness dealer. I wait my turn, then let them know what I need, all painstakingly researched online before arriving. Should be a quick transaction and money in their till, right?

"Oh, sorry. I can't sell you that plan."

*thump*

"Yeah, they want you to order that online, so I can't sell it here."

But this is a company owned store, right? They get the money either way?

"Well, yeah. But I still can't help. Sorry."

*thump*

So I head home and try to order online. Any the website would be more than happy to set me up! And send me a free phone from a small but high quality selection!

But I have my BB, so no phone for me. Save their money, save the environment, and all that. Except I can't. No way to order new service without getting a new phone.

*thump*

So I call them. I let them know who I am, what I need, and that I have done the research and really just need their help getting it set up.

No problem! Happy to help! Have you picked out a new phone? Because we can't set up a new account without giving you a phone.

*thump*

There is a happy ending. I did eventually get sent to the activation group (who don't even have phone to give out!) and they got me set up. And I was eligible for up to 10 lines! Yeah, I just need the one, but in case I ever needed 10, they are ready to help!

*thump*

Not really HR, but...

..still struck me as odd.

I'm ordering a cake for a party, and want to get a photo cake. So I ask the bakery if they do them. They said no problem, just bring us the picture.

My pics are all digital, so I asked if I could use a .jpg file. I was told no, I'd need to bring an actual photo.

What do they do then? Why, they scan the photo to make a digital copy. But they can only do it if I bring the picture in.

And no one, it seems, notices anything wrong with this system.

The think I love about Lean is that it changes your mindset, and gets you to look at the world differently. The problem is you can't turn it off, and end up struggling to order a cake without trying to re-engineer the whole process.