HR must come out of its silo and put the H back into HR

In this blog post, INZMO's Chief of People & Culture, Reelika Ein, shares her vision about the challenges and future of human management. 

I've always been about five years ahead with my vision of what should be done differently in the field. It's challenging to cope with this, as my story is sometimes too futile for others. For example, a couple of years ago, I wanted to create an online course to share my knowledge on innovation management, but I was told there was no future for it because no one would bother to learn new things online. Yet, here we are today - online learning is estimated to be worth 238 billion US dollars by 2027.

Challenges of the new normal, the rise of remote and hybrid work, what we need to overcome

People tend to overwork more easily when working from home. Employers have feared that if an employee is out of sight, they may not do the work; in reality, it is the opposite. Human resource management needs a fundamental change to survive - getting rid of the process-centric approach to people management, development interviews, and one-size-fits-all programs and procedures. People are not a resource, a single mass. Instead, each individual has their strengths and specificities, so reaching out to each person now and in the future is essential. The key lies in a personalized approach and in keeping people. Yet, it's tough to gasp for so many managers as they try to fit people into the system as they're all in the shape of circles, while in reality, people can also be the shape of cubes, triangles etc. 

The quality of management needs to improve, as it impacts employee engagement the most

I would like to see a leap forward in the quality of management. According to Gallup, the direct manager has a 70% impact on employee engagement. Gallup's "State of the Global Workplace" 2022 report found that employee engagement is at just 21% globally. The report divided employees into three types based on their engagement. Imagine out of 100 people in your business: 21 are powerfully rowing toward your company goals. So we don't have an engagement problem but a leadership quality problem instead.

I recommend reading Robert Sutton's "Good Boss, Bad Boss" book. In my ideal world, leaders must focus very seriously on developing the knowledge and skills to lead innovation. It means something other than organizing a few hackathons or sprints and redesigning the entire business, from the business model to the culture. Instead, it requires some bold moves from leaders, starting with getting out of the way and not harming others by micromanaging them.

Secondly, I wish employers don't confuse recruitment marketing and employer branding. The latter is a job from the inside out. First, "get the house in order" and then do the marketing. But in recruitment and recruiting, I notice the opposite - leaders focus on lights and whistles first. As a result, value propositions often don't reflect reality and are more about stupid perks than things that positively influence employee well-being and engagement.

However, an authentic image is essential to stand out from the crowd. I once had lunch with a designer who works in a well-known digital agency. He explained how their whole team was burnt out and that they were taking turns on sick leave. At the same time, social media accounts belonging to the same agency were buzzing with content, promising chocolate mountains to future employees. I have not seen anyone leaving their job because of a lack of sports compensation. 

In the end, all roads lead to management and quality. Fake it until you make it is not a good tactic for employer branding. Gallup has said that in a labor crisis, the best competitive strategy for employers is to retain their employees - "In a competitive job market, retention is your best defense strategy". 

Notably, stable teams are the foundation of business success. Stanford University spent years studying start-ups and concluded that the most successful start-ups were teams where at least 2-3 of the 4-6 members had previously worked together successfully. In addition, replacing one employee costs a company around 1.5-2 years' salary. Therefore, digital solutions are worth considering to improve employee well-being and retention.

The future of managing people

Human resource processes should be automated to the maximum possible extent. The intelligent machine makes fewer mistakes and can work with volumes of data beyond human capabilities. From recruitment to engagement management - there is no need to worry whether people are still ready to interact with the 'machine'. IBM was one of the most outstanding examples of applying AI to employee experience and engagement management successfully. While there were initial fears that maybe people wouldn't want to interact with the "machine," then, in reality, they were happy to. As a result, the company was able to save a large number of costs with this solution.

The only metric that HR should focus on is leadership quality. Company culture is a leadership responsibility, and culture is not what companies say about themselves on social media. Instead, it is what people say about their experience with the company and employer.