must deliver on these factors as well as the individual factors that mirror them. Individuals expect autonomy, meaningful work, a sense of connection and a supportive growth-focused community around them. While the newer generations entering the workforce may prompt significant change, these are certainly factors that apply across the generations.
sees a great future ahead for HR to deliver value in the business world: ‘HR has the potential to respond to value-creating opportuni- ties around talent, leadership, and organization, and to become piv- otal for business success and employee wellbeing. But HR doesn’t always realize this potential’ (Ulrich, 2018). This is key for HR: real- izing potential. There are many professionals who believe that em- ployee-centricity and a focus on the holistic experience that employees have within, and beyond, work is the way to do it.
Ulrich and I discussed his research and his book, Victory Through Organization, and some of the core findings suggest that developing a company at organization level is four times more impactful than focusing on individual talent (Ulrich et al, 2017). I don’t disagree with this one bit, and I propose that EX is a multidimensional and holistic construct that integrates both the human and the organiza- tion. It’s kind of like a two for one. We are not just developing new systems to benefit production and the organization, but more so, or- ganizations are co-creating their own systems that create a better per- formance experience for both sides of the employment relationship.
EX is about individuals, yet it is equally about the community of people who coexist together within the framework of what we call a company. You can’t develop one without the other and the best EX cases I have been directly involved with or studied have developed both the system that supports and underpins EX and the people at the centre of EX – employees, leaders and customers.
In this sense, the role of HR and the role of every other support function changes. HR is not simply a support function within the business. HR, at its very best, is integrated, not separate, from the core of what a company does. But with EX in full flow, other depart- ments with significant influence on EX come into play such as facili- ties, estates, IT, catering, marketing and related functions.
EX is not restricted to the realm of HR, and that’s a great thing as responsibility (and accountability) is finally, and rightfully, shared across the business. It’s about time and it’s probably timely for HR to step up and lead the business in the most progressive of ways. The former CEO of HCL Technologies, Vineet Nayar, pulls no punches in claiming that HR as we know it will be dead by 2020. Nayar makes the case that employees have no wish to keep HR and nor do CEOs.
He bases this on how much HR work is valued in the labour market,
and a lack of progress for HR professionals within business. Nayar underlines the point that HR is surrounded by a whole world of dis- ruption centred on a greater understanding and application of human psychology. HR is well placed to lead, but has not developed a fun- damental expertise and conviction in the principles of placing hu- mans at the centre of business models (Nayar, 2017). This view is certainly a valid point and part of the truth. The HR required in the future will look very different from the HR of today.
Nitro made a headline-catching statement about why they trans- formed from ‘(In)human resources’ to employee experience by chal- lenging the very notion of what HR is and what it does. This, alongside the employee experience focus at Airbnb, was an early indicator that organizations were on the cusp of a major overhaul of HR.
Subsequently, one of Nitro’s senior HR team attended one of my seminars and we delved a little deeper into the headline and what it meant in practice, which is discussed in Chapter 6.
HR, inevitably, is a function that is seen to be key when discussing employee experience. There are so many connection points between HR and employees that it is the obvious choice to play a leading role.
From pre-hire to retire, HR is well positioned to have a huge impact on the overall experience of the brand internally. The window to take this newly presented opportunity is time-limited though. EX has brought about an opportunity to closely align all functions that im- pact or enhance experience of work, which means that the talent pool has just become a lot bigger with a surprising number of these new EX roles going to non-HR people.
The HR world is shifting every day with the pace of change quite staggering with companies having to react (or not) to new market trends, consumer behaviours, and to new disruptive companies that not only challenge and out-innovate around the customer experi- ence, but also outperform their peers in the employee experience stakes. A disruptive company like Airbnb competing directly with an established hotel chain springs to mind. HR is in the very thick of the action, and is uniquely positioned at the centre of the organiza- tion. As a function, HR has strong potential to help get the best from the multigenerational and cross-cultural workforces we see today.
After speaking to a lot of people about HR, including many in the function, it becomes obvious that HR is on the cusp of a major tran-
sition period. While there has never been a better time to work in HR, there is an opportunity here that must be taken to play a greater business leadership role across all aspects of EX.
I spoke to the CEO of a high-growth business that generates
£50 million in revenues per annum with less than 100 staff. What he said to me is indicative of a wider challenge within the profession. His company actively chose not to have an HR function, and resisted any attempts at board level to bring one in. How can this be? This was not some backward business. This was a highly successful, confident com- pany with dozens of awards and an EX that staff are rightly very proud of. Yet, therein is the lesson. They achieved all their success without HR getting in the way. They outsourced the risk and compli- ance aspects, and did all high-value EX work themselves as a commu- nity. Now, this is a perception of the value HR brings to the business, and it is often felt by colleagues I meet around the world that HR is a tough sell. The function really does have to work much harder than any other profession to win trust, credibility and respect. Some have found a way to reposition HR as the ‘People’ function, which goes a long way to eliminate the baggage of the past, but the real challenge remains; how people ‘experience’ HR services and colleagues, what- ever the title, is the main opportunity (or obstacle) for HR to embrace.
It is less about titles, much more about relationships and impact.
With businesses and employees expecting more of today’s HR func- tion, is this creating a self-belief issue within the profession? This circu- lar discussion about getting a seat at the table has been going on for years. Out of curiosity, I have asked hundreds of HR colleagues globally how they feel about their roles and the results are consistently the same.
HR colleagues express a lack of belief and a perception that they are merely a support function within the business. They are not ‘real’ busi- ness leaders and this appears to be the prevailing view inside and out- side of the function. Something must be done about this, and now.