Nordic-HR-Trends

Measuring the Company Pulse

Wed, 14 Dec 2022 20:37:43 GMT

ENGAGEMENT An overfloating amount of job postings increases the risk, that the employee changes employer more often.This has changed the landscape for employee surveys significantly and new digital solutions enable new ways of feedback systems and agile action plans in realtime.

Progressive employers who manage to hire the right people and to keep valuable resources on board, are aware of the power of daily communication to enhance engagement and they use different tools to ensure the dialogue with employees. With other words: They have discovered the power of measuring the pulse of their company.

This has changed the landscape for employee surveys significantly and new digital solutions enable new ways of feedback systems and agile action plans in flat organizations.

Surveys

Employee surveys is nothing new. The first surveys were introduced in the 1930ths by not organized employers in the U.S to avoid the establishing of trade unions in the organization. This is far away from progressive employers today, who use new digital tools including smart solutions and even artificial intelligence to ensure the daily pulse of an organization, to predict upcoming conflicts and to increase engagement and avoid employee turnover. Time have changed and today’s challenges on the labor market forces employers to take the step from long term improvement to daily dialogues and follow up to keep the staff in board.

The most common types of employee surveys measure a mix of employee opinion, satisfaction, culture and engagement. Companies normally put different focus on the outcome of the surveys, then to make sense, a survey should always be linked to the goals, strategies and the risks that have been identified by the management.

The Timing

Employee surveys are rolled out regularly and while more traditional oriented companies roll out the survey yearly or biyearly, leading HR organizations have found new ways to roll out the survey more often. Today, the most progressive employers even measure engagement and selected engagement drivers on daily basis.

There are different opinions about the best timing for the roll out. Some prefer to wait until the organization has come over turbulent times like organizational changes or merit increase processes to get “good engagement values”. This can be dangerous, and it is advisable not to step into that trap, then today, a disappointed employee will not wait for the next survey or one-to-one meeting if he or she finds a new job offer in the mailbox. The employer of choice sees this mindset as a part of the organizational life and is prepared to avoid fluctuation by daily communication with the staff.

The Solution

To give the staff a chance to communicate their concern in real time, the tools must be easy and uncomplicated to handle from both sides. The need for new digital tools is not only valid for global teams, where the manager must find ways to communicate remote. As the amount of remote worker increased rapidly during the pandemic, it got necessary for to offer new communication channels in addition to Zoom Meetings.

Digital solutions give managers crucial insight in how their whole organization is feeling and performing – from the holistic view down to the individual level. They monitor and compare the measurements of different teams, offices, or departments, and can easily identify strengths and roadblocks. They look into the survey responses behind each category to better understand the specifics of a temperature variation and they use this data to engage in richer dialogues.

The Role of the Manager

Digital solutions enable the communication and indicates the pulse of the company daily. The employee is treated as a customer and is given the same tools to show engagement and satisfaction as a customer who selects green and red smiles in the department store.

But how can the managers respond to such increasing stream of information? The success of all kinds of employee surveys are always based on action and improvement. Is there not a risk that the management creates expectations, that cannot be kept? The solution is closer than you might think.

Smart solutions help the manager with the communication and artificial intelligence help the management to predict future disengagement. But it is also important, that the manager steps down from traditional top-down perspective. The role of the manager is not to bring satisfaction to teams, the role of the manager is to enable engagement and satisfaction. Long term engagement can only be ensured if the manager uses his role as facilitator and enables the staff to take part of the improvement process directly. This improves engagement, because we know that responsibility, recognition, and performance are key engagement drivers.

For this reason, progressive digital systems do not stop with measuring engagement and satisfaction. To enable added value, it must also include tools for teamwork and improvement for managers and employees.

HR contributes to CSR

Wed, 14 Dec 2022 11:11:31 GMT

Sustainable HR Management boosts competitiveness! The request for CSR oriented employers and suppliers increases rapidly and sustainable organizations usually gain competitive advantages among internal and external stakeholders. We have listed 7 points for HR to contribute to the sustainability in your company.

Sustainable Human Resource Management is a young area within Human Resource Management. Originally, sustainable HR initiatives mainly focused on development of green competences within the organization to gain competitive advantages among stakeholders.

Nowadays, the field of Sustainable HR initiatives is considered to include a wider range of activities to enable the employer to achieve the triple bottom line. And today, mainly HR Management initiatives considering all the three areas, social-, financial- and ecological sustainability, are considered as sustainable.

To support the business plan and to gain competitive advantages, HR Initiatives should, beside green HR, also cover topics like ethics, diversity, work environment, people development, transparency, and resourcefulness.

How can HR contribute to more sustainability in the organization?

1) Define clear goals for the sustainable initiatives and link the goals to the business plan.

2) Define sustainability competences , that are important for the organization and develop them. Some transversal competences are important for all sustainable organizations, but you should also define the competences crucial for your business. This makes you unique as employer.

3) Develop a sustainable organizational culture from the board of directors to each single employee and develop an ethic business culture covering the topics diversity, equity, inclusion, people development, transparency and resourcefulness.

4) Work with attitudes and values and create a plan for how to coach leaders and employees, who behave against the sustainable goals.

5) Create enabling factors for balance between work and private life through flexibility and mobility solutions.

6) Recruit, motivate and engage leaders who appreciate sustainability.

7) Communicate everything you do to your stakeholders.

Chill at Work!

Mon, 12 Dec 2022 15:24:50 GMT

Now it is proven again!! Take it easy and chill at work – it increases your chances for a promotion - if you can differentiate between hard work and good outcome.

Dr. Argyro Avgoustaki at ESCP Europe Business School has examined the effect on increased work effort on well-being and career related outcomes from 52.000 employees in Europe and came to the conclusion that employees, who take it easy in the job are luckier, more healthy and have better possibilities to get promoted. Increased work effort is related to strongly reduced well-being and only modestly to intermediate career related outcomes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIA22O538Zk

So… here we go again: The guy in the forest, who takes regular brakes and sharpens his saw has the best chance to win the competition against the guy who works hard without brake with a blunt saw. The right outcome is about avoiding the stress trap and to focus on doing the right thing.

It sounds easy…… yes I know… but the essential question should be: How do we know that we do the right thing? Even advices like “focus on doing the 20 % that bring you 80% forward” does not help very much if still, the main challenge is to define the 20%!

To avoid the stress trap and to define the right thing, one could consider the following steps:

- The right thing is the outcome that brings you closer to your target. Don’t forget to define objectives both for your professional and your private life. Make an objective for 5 years and brake the goal down to 2 years, 1 year 1 month, 1 week, 1 day

- The right thing is linked to the limits you have decided for your well-being. If you know that you need 8 h sleep to be fit for work, it is a minimum. If you know that you only should smoke 1 cigarette/day it is your maximum.

- The right thing is communicated and agreed upon with your colleagues and with your family and other friends who are important for you. This is to avoid and foresee conflicts. Ask for feedback, discuss and find solutions together. Perhaps you need to adjust your minimum and maximum.

- The right thing is good enough for the moment but can always be improved. Make a weekly review on the outcome, adjust and take action again.

Recruiting Trends

Mon, 12 Dec 2022 15:24:49 GMT

There's a lot of buzz around employer branding, and for good reason. We've scaled down the latest trends and tips to stay ahead of the game to more effectively grow your business.
trends and tips to stay ahead of the game to more effectively grow your business

1. Treat Your Candidate as Your Customer

With the lowest unemployment rate ever in the EU and increased job opportunities, it’s harder to

attract talent than ever before. The tides are turning: it’s no longer about what the candidate can do for

you. It’s all about what you can do for the candidate.

This means selling your company to candidates like you sell your services to clients. People are the

single most valuable part of who you are, and they need to see and feel that.

How?

• Create an easy-to-navigate, attractive career site. Be transparent about how you care for your

employees and the kind of company culture your workplace practices. What is it that sets you

apart?

• Money ≠ Happiness. Many companies mistake money as the key factor in attracting hard-to-find

talent when in reality, engineers would consider a pay cut for their ideal job. Offer growth

opportunities that speak to your target talent and fits with their goals

2. Apply on-the-go

Meet your candidates where they spend most of their time: on their phones. Our analytics show that

approximately 33% of applications come through mobile devices. Catch their attention by optimising

your application process for mobile use.

How?

• Cut the application length. One-in-five of candidates drop out after spending 10 minutes on an

application. The exact talent you're losing in your pipe is the kind you want – they're in demand

and value their own time. Show that you value their time too!

• Create tailored questions for a specific job instead of requiring a cover letter and CV. Use

multiple choice questions or insert a range for candidates to place themselves - You can

even get to know the candidate through short video responses.

3. Automate the admin

Odds are, administrative tasks are stealing your time. In an ideal world, the majority of your time would

be spent working with candidates and letting the administrative hassle around recruiting processes

take care of themselves. Thanks to HR tech, this is becoming a reality for many people.

How?

• Invest in HR tech that automates. For example, moving candidates through a process

automatically dependent on response.

• Automate the most time-consuming tasks. Learn how to automate admin that saturates your

time, like organising candidates into specific stages or scheduling interviews. The time investment

this takes is about 4 minutes. The return of it is many, many more hours spent meeting candidates

and making faster hires.

4. Respect your candidates

According to CareerBuilder and SilkRoad’s latest survey, 68% of employees believe their experience

as a candidate reflects how the company treats its people. With technological advantages making it

easier to stay in closer contact with just about anyone, it is only natural to stay in touch with those

interested in joining your company.

How?

• Respond to applications quickly. 55% of applicants move on if they haven't heard back from

you within two weeks.

• Keep candidates engaged. Stay in touch through direct chats, email, or text message. Be willing

to answer questions and speak to them about the opportunity, even before they apply.

The better you take care of your candidates, the better they speak about you, which is arguably the

most effective kind of marketing. It’s not news, but always a good reminder :)

5. Know the facts

Knowing how your candidates find and connect with you is the single best way to optimize your

recruitment. Track where your job ads are gaining most traction or how long a recruitment takes -

these measurements happen automatically and are easy to understand.

How?

• Invest in an all-in-one ATS. Yes, again. An ATS automatically tracks how long your candidates

are in specific stages, or which kinds of platforms and devices your candidates are applying from

(and a lot more). Then? Optimize.

• Use an NPS survey. Don't be afraid to ask your candidates about their experience. Learn about

yourselves from their point of view - this helps you target and adapt to them more authentically.

Workplace Technology & Engagement

Mon, 12 Dec 2022 11:11:31 GMT

Will Workplace Tech become the new battleground for war for talents, productivity & reputation?

A global study from the HR Tech Company Freshworks shows that 91% of the staff are frustrated by workplace tech and that employers globally face a coming work place crisis, due to inadequate technology. Workplace tech might even become the next battle ground for the war for talents.

The study shows, that insufficient Technology might damage employees productivity, mental health and ability to retain talents in a time when 44% of the employees globally consider to change jobs.

User friendly technology has a surprisingly impact on employee engagement.

Obviously, digital solutions should not be too complicated. 70% of all business leaders say, that their staff will consider looking for a new job if the employer does not provide tools that they need to do their jobs well.

A gap between employee experience expectation vs. tech reality

Despite the rapid changes of the way we work, Freshworks mentions, that workplace technology is simply not keeping pace with employee expectations, as 91% of employees are frustrated due to inadequate workplace technology. This was consistently high across all regions. There are reasons to believe, that decent work place technology will have a considerable impact on employee satisfaction and on war for talents.

Negative effects on mental health & wellbeing

The study also shows, that employee stress increases due to insufficient workplace technology; 49% of the staff reported, that inadequate tools causes them to feel stressed and 48% claimed, it has negatively impacted on their mental health.

48 % of European respondents report that they suffer from stress caused by inadequate workplace tech, compared to 55% APAC LATAM, 54% in the US 52% in MEA.

HR Process Ownership

Tue, 25 Oct 2022 20:48:07 GMT

Don’t let your IT Tool become the owner of your HR Processes! Each employer is different.

“What can we do more with the HR Software tool we just installed in our company?”

It is a usual question, that I often get from customers today. The first module has been implemented successfully, normally a digital personnel file or recruiting solution, normally provided by one of Germanys best HR Tech companies. Obviously also sold by one of Germany best sales force, because there is a strong believe, that the HR software alone will save the employer from its daily pains like how to become employer of choice, get the candidates quickly, save costs…

Does your digital tool alone make you special as employer on the labor market? I doubt. Solely the use of a leading HR Software is not really a unique selling point as employer.

“I will explain” Is my answer “But first, we should have a look at your HR processes” I admit, it is tempting to plug in a digital tool and let it drive your business processes to get rid of the administration and paperwork quickly, it might be good enough as a first step and definitely much better than using nothing.

However, In the long term (after you got rid of all paperwork) progressive HR tools should also help you to reflect your business model and unique employer values. It should enable your team to live your business model in their way, enhance employer brand and become employer of choice in your branch. With other words, don’t give up the ownership of your HR Processes to your IT tool because each employer is different!

Nordic-HR-Trends

Measuring the Company Pulse

ENGAGEMENT An overfloating amount of job postings increases the risk, that the employee changes employer more often.This has changed the landscape for employee surveys significantly and new digital solutions enable new ways of feedback systems and agile action plans in realtime.

HR contributes to CSR

Chill at Work!

Now it is proven again!! Take it easy and chill at work – it increases your chances for a promotion - if you can differentiate between hard work and good outcome.

Recruiting Trends

There's a lot of buzz around employer branding, and for good reason. We've scaled down the latest trends and tips to stay ahead of the game to more effectively grow your business. trends and tips to stay ahead of the game to more effectively grow your business

Workplace Technology & Engagement

Will Workplace Tech become the new battleground for war for talents, productivity & reputation?

HR Process Ownership

Don’t let your IT Tool become the owner of your HR Processes! Each employer is different.

There's a lot of buzz around employer branding, and for good reason. We've scaled down the latest trends and tips to stay ahead of the game to more effectively grow your business.
trends and tips to stay ahead of the game to more effectively grow your business