first quarter 2019 a magazine for hr business partners and ... · — peter hinssen, author of...

In This Issue

Feature:HRBPs’ Role in Reskilling the WorkforcePage 4

Personalizing the Consumer Experience in MarketingPage 8

Support a Vibrant Internal Labor Market as an HRBPPage 21

Managing Aggressive People With Dr. Shawn Smith on Talent Angle PodcastPage 25

First Quarter 2019

A Magazine for HR Business Partners and Strategic HR Professionals

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© 2018 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Gartner is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc. and its affiliates. This publication may not be reproduced or distributed in any form without Gartner’s prior written permission. It consists of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization, which should not be construed as statements of fact. While the information contained in this publication has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, Gartner disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information. Although Gartner research may address legal and financial issues, Gartner does not provide legal or investment advice and its research should not be construed or used as such. Your access and use of this publication are governed by Gartner’s Usage Policy. Gartner prides itself on its reputation for independence and objectivity. Its research is produced independently by its research organization without input or influence from any third party. For further information, see “Guiding Principles on Independence and Objectivity.”

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© 2018 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. 706030

Contents

HRBPs’ Role in Reskilling the Workforce 4

Personalizing the Consumer Experience in Marketing 8

Further Promoting Mental Wellness in the Workplace 12

Use Behavior Nudges as an Effective Tool for Cultural Change 15

Shifting From Risk Management to Measured Risk Taking 18

Support a Vibrant Internal Labor Market as an HRBP 21

Managing Aggressive People With Dr. Shawn Smith on Talent Angle Podcast 25

AuthorsHailey BebelRoyce BrosseauAlex FosterRachel PalmerKhrystian Pereira

CreativeSenior Graphic DesignerStacey Phipps

EditorsMeghan Cortez

Editor in ChiefDanielle Douglas

© 2019 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. 706030

Critical Experiences for Aspiring Heads of HR

Many HRBPs are at a career stage in which a leadership role can come next ...

n = 246 HRBPsSource: Gartner (March 2019)

of HRBPs say they are either midlevel or senior

managers.1

45%

... and they are seeking out development opportunities to get there.

of HRBPs agree or strongly agree they actively

seek out development opportunities.1

68%

Most HRBPs Aspire to Be a Head of HR

n = 246 HRBPs1

Source: Gartner (March 2019)

6% Do Not Know

6% Other

14% Head of HRBPs

5% Head of a COE

5% Non-HR Leadership58%

Head of HR 6% Current Role

What role would you like to hold at the “peak” of your professional career?

1 2019 Gartner HR Professional Priorities Survey

Experiences HRBPs Should Prioritize to Prepare to Become a CHRO

Prevalence

Cri

tical

ity

Emerging Experiences

• Working on an international assignment • Sitting on a board of directors• Going public or private• Engaging with investors

Must-Have Experiences

• Leading a cultural transformation• Managing executives through

a sensitive crisis or situation• Crafting a new mission, vision or set

of values• Enacting a major cost-cutting

or restructuring initiative• Growing the workforce for a rapidly

expanding business

High-Potential Experiences

• Supporting a merger or acquisition• Implementing a large-scale change

to compensation or benefits• Leading board interactions without

the CEO present• Managing a CEO transition• Expanding into new markets

or product lines

High-Voltage Experiences

Leading a business unit with P&L responsibility

HRBPs’ Role in Reskilling the WorkforceBy Staff

HRBP Quarterly | First Quarter 2019 4

Ensuring employees have the skills they need for their jobs today — and in the near future — has become increasingly complex. As skill needs shift more rapidly due to digitalization, HR faces the growing pressure to ensure the organization has the skills employees and the business need to succeed in the future.

Organizations can take two approaches to accomplish this: Build or buy the skills they need. In this article, we focus on the former. To effectively upskill and develop employees, organizations need to identify critical skills and implement skill development opportunities. The L&D team typically owns this, but HRBPs’ familiarity with the day-to-day work of their client

groups makes them uniquely positioned to play a critical role in helping employees and the organization at large identify, build and sustain the skills that will lead to their success.

Employees with high skills preparedness perform up to 45% better, display up to 51% more discretionary effort, are up to 45% more engaged and exhibit up to 9% greater intent to stay than employees with low skills preparedness.1

Digital Transformation Requires a Shift in Skill RequirementsOrganizations today push ahead with digital transformations that ultimately affect the way they do business and drive forces behind ongoing shifts in the skills required for employees to succeed. As a result of these digital transformations, organizations are experiencing high-level skill gaps that HR needs to get ahead of. Compounding the importance, employees report concern about their skills becoming irrelevant and cite the need for better upskilling as their top concern for the future (see Figure 1).

n = 5,997 employeesSource: 2017 Gartner Digitalization Survey

Figure 1: Employees’ Top 5 Work Expectations as a Result of Digitalization

I Need Better Upskilling

I Need to Do Work Faster

I Want to Spend Less Time on Unnecessary Processes

I Want Better Data to Do My Job Better

I Want More Flexible Working Arrangements

52%

40%

37%

36%

35%

0% 30% 60%


Emerging, Evolving and Expiring SkillsThe high-level skill gaps we see that highlight the organization’s need to reskill comprise three shifts: Future skills are emerging, today’s skills are evolving and yesterday’s skills are expiring (see Figure 2). Employees may experience emerging, evolving and expiring skills in different ways, but all three changes are present in every organization.

Building Connected LearnersMost L&D functions today focus on building continuous learners by working with the business to keep up with the skills leaders request. This approach seems like an organized way to keep up with constantly changing skill needs, but it is detrimental to the business because it creates disconnected learners. This occurs because the approach is: • Misguided — It relies solely on business

leaders to identify and disseminate organizational skill needs through L&D, yet business leader input can be sporadic or subjective, leading L&D to prioritize the wrong employee skills. Relying on leader inputs has a -22% impact on skills preparation.

Figure 2: Emerging, Evolving and Expiring Skills

Emerging Skills Evolving Skills Expiring Skills

Examples:• Amazon Web Services• Artificial intelligence• Robotic machinery

operations and management• Social interaction with smart

robots

Examples:• Design skills for

print advertising• Linux• Manual product sorting• Numeracy and cashiering

Examples:• Collaboration on

a virtual team • Innovation at the

pace of change• Java• Quantitative modeling• Social media advertisement


• Irrelevant — This approach assumes simply knowing the organization needs new skills will motivate employees to build them. However, these communications can feel irrelevant to employees’ personal objectives and growth.

• Overwhelming and unfocused — The approach fails to address the issue that navigating a self-service learning portal can be overwhelming and unfocused and fail to offer an experience-based development for employees.

Fortunately, a more effective way exists to help employees upskill at speed: Support leaders to build connected learners. The connected learner approach focuses on developing the connective tissue employees need to make the right upskilling investments for their jobs and careers and to develop through experiences at work (see Figure 3).

Rather than solely communicating the business’s skill requirements, organizations that build connected learners focus on connecting employees to the outcomes they truly care about: The benefits they will personally receive from building new skills.


Figure 3: The Model for Building Connected Learners


Market Connection

Diversify Skills Identification

Inputs

Organization Connection Demonstrate

Personal Growth

Development Connection

Broker Experiences

Learner

Connected learners see big boosts in key outcomes. They are 66% more engaged and are eight times more likely to be high performers than nonconnected learners.2 Shifting from a continuous learner to a connected learner approach requires three fundamental shifts:1. Diversify skills identification inputs.2. Demonstrate that personal employee growth

is aligned with business growth.3. Provide development opportunities by

brokering experiences.

As HRBPs work with their client groups, they can serve as critical partners to L&D to uncover client groups’ true skill development needs and implement employee upskilling and reskilling as quickly and effectively as possible.

How HRBPs Can Help Reskill the Workforce and Build Connected LearnersTo support their client groups and partners in L&D with reskilling the workforce, you can:

• Determine the most critical roles in your client group. Which roles directly impact strategy, directly impact revenue or require a specific personality or set of skills? (Don’t fall into the continuous learner trap of relying too much on the senior leader perspective alone!)

• Coach managers to identify how skill shifts explicitly impact employees in their work to activate self-motivation for personal development. Encourage managers to talk through this benefit with their employees.

• Provide managers with a career development questionnaire that helps employees reverse-engineer their development planning by starting with a career goal in mind. After employees identify their career goals, managers can help to connect them with the necessary development opportunities that build to the end goal.

• Work with business leaders and fellow HRBPs to create the infrastructure (for example, connection platforms, rotational programs or job swaps) for employees to explore development experiences throughout the organization and connect to the development they need.

• Search for local universities or corporate partners with relevant development opportunities to expand the scope of development experiences and enable employees to build skills outside of the organization.

ConclusionIn partnership with L&D functions and business leaders, HRBPs play a critical role in employee development — and subsequently employee performance and business outcomes — by helping diversify critical skills inputs, motivating employees by aligning business needs with their personal growth and enabling on-the-job learning.

Endnotes1 “Reskilling the Workforce,” Gartner.2 2018 Gartner Shifting Skills Survey; n = 7,101 employees


Demand for HRBPs to have marketing and sales skills rose by 395% between 2015 and 2018,1 making it clear that HR can learn a lot from marketing.

Personalizing the Consumer Experience in MarketingBy Alex Foster

Spotlight on the Business

“There’s a lot of clues that HR can take from what happened in the world of marketing …. There is no average customer anymore. You have to really zoom in on the unique, the individual …. What if [HR] could focus not on the average employee but on the unique individual, so that we know exactly what is relevant for your particular situation? So we can actually turn whatever information we capture into things that provide value for you as a unique employee, so that we understand before someone quits their job and leaves, what we should actually do [to retain you]”

— Peter Hinssen, author of “The Day After Tomorrow,” on the Gartner Talent Angle podcast

Marketing functions are increasingly data-driven, as the increasing sophistication of consumers’ lives and competitors’ strategies have demanded it. Today, HR finds itself at a similar crossroads.

How do we use data to deliver relevant messages to consumers at scale? This question keeps marketers up at night. As the number of items competing for our attention rapidly increases in the digital age, consumers are giving less attention to the many ads and messages they receive from different organizations. Marketers are responding by personalizing messages as much as possible to create stronger relationships with their target customers.

While message personalization is effective, organizations that do it the wrong way face serious consequences. Understanding this trend will help HRBPs apply best practices to HR communications with employees and job candidates as well as better support the business and the marketing function.

Eighty-seven percent of marketing functions currently pursue some level of personalization in their interactions with customers and potential customers, and 56% of marketing leaders increased their personalization spend in 2018.2


Figure 1: Q — “Which Type of Brands Do You Prefer to Receive Personalized Communications From?”Percentage of Surveyed Consumers

n = 2,585 consumersSource: 2018 Gartner Consumer Personalization Panel

18% All Brands

52% Brands That I

Give Permission To

12% Do Not Want Any Communications

18% Brands That I Love

Personalization: Creating relevant, tailored interactions between the recipients (prospective or existing customer) and the brand or organization designed to enhance the experience of the recipient on platforms that marketing owns (e.g., email, owned website, social media, loyalty portals).Personalization relies on insights derived from the recipient’s personal data, and/or behavioral data about the action of similar individuals, to deliver relevant and targeted messaging or experiences on marketing-owned platforms that meet the recipient’s specific needs and preferences.

Additionally, consumers are generally open to receiving personalized messages (see Figure 1).Although marketers want to use personalization in their marketing strategy, not all levels of personalization are good for engaging target customers. Some personalized messages come off as irrelevant to the recipient, which can cause 48% of consumers to unsubscribe from brand messages and 14% to stop doing business with the brand altogether.2

Learning and development (L&D) teams have been learning a similar lesson, finding that just-in-time learning is critical to whether an employee finds it relevant. When messages come from L&D that employees find irrelevant, they ignore them, and the L&D function’s credibility is hurt as employees learn that messages from L&D don’t help them do their jobs. Some marketers overcompensate for this lack of relevance by making messages too personal — to the point where consumers find messages invasive. Invasive messages from brands provoke 57% of consumers to unsubscribe from communications and another 38% to stop doing business with the brand entirely.2 This puts marketers in a high-stakes situation: Consumers are so overwhelmed with marketing messages that any message that doesn’t meet their strict standards can lose them as a customer forever.


Send messages that are timely and relevant to consumers without making them feel like an algorithm knows everything about them. But marketers aren’t clear on how to strike this balance.

Perceived Intent in Personalized MessagesDespite the risk involved for marketers, personalization success is easy to define: Send messages that are timely and relevant to consumers without making them feel like an algorithm knows everything about them. But marketers aren’t clear on how to strike this balance. Additionally, consumers view brands’ efforts to personalize messages based on the perceived intent of the message, and this has massive implications for how to approach personalization.

Intent 1: Prove You Know Me“Prove you know me” messages include personally identifiable information and simply demonstrate to the consumer that the sender knows who they are, what they’ve done (such as previous items purchased or webpages visited) or what’s important to them.When this is a message’s only perceived intent, it has no obvious or immediate practical value to the consumer, and as such, it does not contribute to a positive experience for consumers. “Prove you know me” messages result in a negative commercial impact when they aren’t accompanied by a “help me” message. Consumers may react negatively to these messages because they aren’t sure what the brand is doing with their information, which creates distrust among consumers.

Intent 2: Help Me“Help me” messages, on the other hand, focus on helping the consumer to complete a task or get through a purchase. These include messages that use personalization to give the consumer a better experience in some concrete way, like:• Making an interaction easy• Teaching the consumer something new• Directing the consumer to relevant

information or products• Rewarding the consumer

“Help me” messages use personally identifiable information in a way that helps create an effortless consumer experience or address a problem the consumer needs to solve. Here,


Endnotes1 Gartner TalentNeuron analysis; n = 71,329 job requisitions2 2018 Gartner State of Personalization Survey3 The “Commercial Benefit Index” is a composite variable that measures

the likelihood of a consumer to make a purchase or repurchase, increase their cart size or report higher brand intent ( i.e., the degree to which a consumer has a specific brand in mind before making a purchase).

Figure 2: Amplifying Effect of “Prove You Know Me”Change in Commercial Benefit Index, When Going From Bottom to Top Quartile

n = 2,585 consumersSource: 2018 Gartner Consumer Personalization Panel

“Prove You Know Me” (Without Helping Me)

“Help Me” (Without Proving

You Know Me)

Tailored Help (“Prove You Know Me”

and “Help Me”)

∆ = 4% 20%

16%

-4%

20%

0%

-20%

consumers directly and immediately reap the benefits of the brand using their personal data.

Striking the Right Personalization BalanceSimilarly, personalized messages from HR to employees need to have tangible benefits. Otherwise, they can be perceived as inauthentic, irrelevant or invasive. All interactions employees have with any kind of organizationwide communication (whether in an email, in an HRIS or LMS or in a company intranet) can contribute to either a positive or negative employee experience, and interactions across all these platforms have opportunities for enhanced personalization.Even more effective for marketers than “help me” messages by themselves are messages that incorporate “prove you know me” and “help me” components (see Figure 2). Perhaps when taken together, consumers conclude the brand’s information about them can be used to help them now and in the future and throughout many

different situations. This combined approach, referred to as tailored help, sees the largest effect on our “Commercial Benefit Index.”3

Ironically, just as organizations are demanding more marketing and sales skills of their HRBPs, there is a shortage of skills necessary for a proper personalization strategy within marketing functions. Marketers cited staffing, through a skills gap or insufficient resourcing, as their top barrier to personalization.2 HRBPs and marketers alike who develop the skills necessary to get ahead of this trend will find themselves in high demand.


Further Promoting Mental Wellness in the WorkplaceBy Hailey Bebel

We previously discussed its importance in the 2Q edition of the HRBP Quarterly in an article titled “Promote Mental Wellness in the Workplace.” And newly released literature and guides, such as the “People Managers’ Guide to Mental Health,” make it worth revisiting.

About the “People Managers’ Guide to Mental Health”In September 2018, the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (CIPD)1 and the mental health charity, Mind,2 revised a previously released guide titled the “People Managers’ Guide to Mental Health.” After conducting recent research, they rereleased this guide to provide practical guidance and tools to support people managers who need to continue to focus on the mental health of their employees in 2019. In its new research, Mind found that of the one in 10 employees who rated their current mental health as either poor or very poor, 76% said it was at least partially related to problems at work (see Figure 1).1,2

Figure 1: Employee Mental Health FactorsPercentage of Employees With Poor Mental Health Reporting the Causes

n = 1,802Source: “Mind’s Workplace Wellbeing Index 2016/17,” Mind

54% Combination

20% Other

26% Problems at Work

Mental health is a critical driver of workplace performance because of its effect on employees and their ability to work.


https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/culture/well-being/mental-health-support-report

https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/culture/well-being/mental-health-support-report

51% Do Not

Feel Supported

43% Uncomfortable

Disclosing

49% Feel Supported

57% Comfortable Disclosing

Figure 2: Employee Opinions on Mental Health SupportPercentage of Employees Who Feel Their Employer Supports Their Mental Health and Feel Comfortable Disclosing Issues to Managers

n = 1,802Source: “Mind’s Workplace Wellbeing Index 2016/17,” Mind

While work’s negative impact on employees’ mental health is generally understood, surprisingly, 86% of HR professionals reported employees with poor mental health continued to work when they were unwell.When employees struggling with mental health go to work, consequences exist for employees and the employer. Employees exacerbate their issues by not taking time to seek help, and the employer sees drops in performance, such as taking longer to do tasks and being less patient with customers and clients. While it may be beneficial for employee to take some time off, the CIPD found that 43% of employees did not feel comfortable disclosing their stress or poor mental health to their managers. This is likely because only 49% of employees felt their employer supported their mental health (see Figure 2).Due to these findings, the CIPD and Mind collaborated to update the “People Managers’ Guide to Mental Health” in 2018 to better outline the key actions managers, HR professionals, HRBPs and others can take to improve mental health services in the workplace. The guide is designed to support anyone who manages people, providing information on key mental health challenges and best practices to address them.

How HRBPs Can Continue to Help HRBPs have a critical opportunity to address these issues and support mental wellness. At the conclusion of our article, “Promote Mental Wellness in the Workplace,” we determined three strategies for HRBPs to implement to support mental wellness:• Coach organizational leaders and employees at

all levels of the company to recognize the signs of an employee struggling with mental health.

• Provide targeted support for employees experiencing mental health issues.

• Promote a culture that emphasizes mental health awareness.


Endnotes1 The professional body for HR and people development2 A mental health charity based in England and Wales

In the guide created by Mind and the CIPD discusses five methods HRBPs can use:

• Good practice in recruitment

• Prevention

• Early intervention

• Encouraging mental health discussions

• Supporting employees to return to work

While three of these methods are similar to those we discussed in 2Q edition of the HRBP Quarterly, two of them really build on this list. These two add to our previous guidance by focusing on how HRBPs can support mental health before an employee starts at a job and when an employee is transitioning back after being off due to mental health reasons.

Good Practice in Recruitment Poor recruitment practices are a key source of workplace stress. HRBPs should be aware of their organization’s recruitment process and emphasize that the approach be strategic. To promote strategic recruitment, HRBPs should:

• Emphasize candidates be selected based on their competence and potential rather than their mental health experiences.

• Ensure their organization provides realistic job previews, informing candidates of the positive and negative aspects of the job.

• Confirm recruiters communicate the organization’s commitment to equal opportunities throughout the recruitment process.

Following these steps not only increases the likelihood of good performance but also creates a positive environment for mental health.

Supporting Employees to Return to WorkHRBPs must support employees who need time away from work to recover from mental health issues. Organizations must determine the channel of communication and the frequency of communication between employees and their managers during the time away.

When an employee returns to work, HRBPs should make the first day back as trouble-free as possible to reduce potential anxiety. Ensure the employee feels comfortable and welcomed back to the office. Remember, however, the employee is unlikely to be completely well upon returning. HRBPs and managers should provide ongoing support and ease employees back into their workload, especially if they have had a long-term absence.

Conclusion Organizations must continue managing for positive mental health in 2019. Mental health is a constant struggle and is ever present in the current work environment. The guidance in this article, our article titled “Promote Mental Wellness in the Workplace” and in the “People Managers’ Guide to Mental Health” by CIPD and Mind will assist you in fostering a positive environment for your workforce. By following these recommendations, you will increase your employees’ mental wellbeing and in turn, their performance, ability to work and the overall effects of the workplace on their mental health.


To facilitate the desired company culture, progressive organizations have turned their attention to behavioral nudges as a method to foster a desired organization culture. Organizations can build the culture they want and encourage the performance they need to drive business outcomes by subtly nudging employees to make certain choices.Behavioral nudges steer employee behavior in a predictable way, without limiting choice or implementing additional economic incentives.1 Behavioral interventions, such as nudges, are cost-efficient and cost-effective in encouraging desired employee behaviors without overt imposition.

Use Behavior Nudges as an Effective Tool for Cultural ChangeBy Khrystian Pereira

Due to the nature of the role, HRBPs are well-positioned to implement behavioral nudges when working with client groups. Among other tasks, HRBPs play a key role in performance management, diversity and inclusion initiatives, manager development, succession planning and facilitating cultural change within an organization. In each of these areas, nudges can be a tool help HRBP achieve business goals and foster the desired organizational culture.

Behavioral nudges are based on the belief that people should be free to behave at their discretion (within reason), but HRBPs, in partnership with their organizations, can encourage and facilitate organizational values and build a specific culture by nudging employees to choose certain behaviors.2

By using behavioral nudges, HRBPs can help their organizations create a culture that drives business performance and simultaneously aligns to organizational values. The most effective nudges are simple, do not need extensive explanations and, most importantly, align to the organization’s desired culture. To kick-start a desired culture and to use nudges effectively,


Individual Attitudes

27%

Capability43%

Social Cues30%

Stakeholder Behavior

+-

+- +-

Figure 1: Relative Importance of Behavioral Drivers

Source: “3 Ways to Change Stakeholder Behavior,” Gartner

HRBPs should train leaders to model the desired behaviors. For nudges to work and culture to thrive, leader buy-in is crucial. While behavioral nudges work well for some companies, they are not a blanket solution for cultural change in all workplaces. Our research shows three critical drivers of behavioral change: individual attitudes, capacity and social cues. We found addressing individual attitudes succeeds in changing behavior only 27% of the time, while

73% of the time either capacity or social cues impact how stakeholders behave.3

Particular tactics may only address one of the three aforementioned areas and thus, will have a lower rate of change success. To increase the likelihood of achieving the desired behavior change, HRBPs can strategically use nudges in each of these three areas to influence a cultural shift the organization needs to drive performance.


HRBP’s Tips for Successful Nudges HRBPs should consider using nudges in a way that encourages employees to easily adapt new behaviors without feeling pressured into a behavior change. They can achieve better results using behavior nudges when employees understand the purpose behind the requested change. If the behavior nudge is simple enough and all the stakeholders involved are aware of its importance, it becomes easier for outliers to observe social cues and follow suit in changing their own behavior. Therefore, HRBPs can use nudges in the following ways to steer critical drivers of employee behavior: 1. Avoid Manipulation or Commanding

Statements — It is more effective to use more positive and tactical vocabulary such as “should” statements, coupled with a clear explanation of the importance of the desired behavior change. Even though these statements are less commanding, they allow employees to actively choose to modify their behavior. A principal advantage of this type nudging for HRBPs is avoiding coercion.

2. Develop Your Workplace Nudge Strategy — Nudges should be simple, effective and align with organizational values. For example, if your organization would like to encourage employees to participate in benefits programs, enrolling employees automatically in a retirement plan or a health savings account with an opt-out option are example nudges that may align with the organization’s values. To set a cultural tone throughout the organization, it is important that leaders model the behavior organizations wish to foster in the workforce. For example, leaders can enroll in health and financial benefit programs the organization offers to encourage their teams to do the same.

3. Use Visual Nudges — Visual nudges can easily and effectively steer employee behavior in the workplace. HRBPs may find rewarding employees’ positive behaviors will yield the best behavior change results. For example, create a positive atmosphere around success by creating a visual feedback monitor in the workspace. By showing achievements or milestones visually, stakeholders can observe their success in real time without having to make any additional effort in finding this information.

Workplace behavior nudges are a great complementary tool to other longer-term company development plans. When implementing nudges, always keep in mind the overall business objectives of the organization. Consider nudges a supplemental tactic to long-term organizational plans. Resistance to change is often a product not of disagreement or of skepticism but of perceived difficulty or ambiguity.5 HRBPs may find that including employees and other stakeholders in the process of behavior change could increase the likelihood of organizational change success. While there is not a one-size-fits-all solution for organizational behavior change, nudges are a simple starting point for organizations to build more inclusive cultures.

Endnotes1 R. Thaler and C. Sunstein. “Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health,

Wealth and Happiness” Penguin. 2009.2 “Libertarian Paternalism,” American Economic Review.3 “3 Ways to Change Stakeholder Behavior”4 “Workplace Nudging’ Persuades People to Desirable Behavior,”

Workwire.5 “Nudging: A Very Short Guide,” Harvard University’s DASH Repository.


https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/000282803321947001

https://www.workwire.nl/en/workplace-nudging/#nudging

https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/16205305

Shifting From Risk Management to Measured Risk TakingBy Royce Brosseau

Introduction

The global labor market puts organizations and their HR functions in a precarious situation where the market for labor is incredibly competitive, unemployment continues to decrease and the level of discretionary effort is in decline. This presents an ever-increasing set of challenges for business leaders who, in turn, involve HRBPs to solve this new set of challenges.

Traditionally, HRBPs are expected to be risk managers, but as their roles evolve and their strategic role becomes more prominent, HRBPs are shifting their focus from managing to encourage measured risk taking. One strategy that HRBPs have in their arsenal is to facilitate and encourage measured risk taking.

In a recent Gartner survey, HRBPs reported they believe encouraging employees and leaders to take more risks is the second most important strategy to effectively drive innovation within their client groups in the next two to four years. However, only 36% of HRBPs believe they will obtain risk assessment as a skill in the next two to four years, and data show that risk assessment decreased in demand in HRBP job postings by -43% from 2005 through 2018.1 Furthermore, HR leaders understand the benefits of risk taking, with 65% believing that bold, wide-ranging acts are necessary to achieve the organization’s objectives.2


Equip Business Leaders for Shared, Not Individual, Risk TakingTo facilitate risk taking, many organizations prepare leaders for individual risk taking. However, the goal for HRBPs should be to equip leaders for shared, not individual, risk taking. While individual risk taking has been shown to have an 8% increase on innovation, shared risk-taking results in a 28% increase on innovation.3 HRBPs can focus on two strategies to equip business leaders in their client groups to become shared risk takers:1. Facilitate sessions with business leaders

to discover and discuss their individual and collective decision-making tendencies to develop strategies to take action on risks as a group.

2. Have conversations with client groups to consider and determine the set of trade-offs they will confront in their risk-taking process.

To understand how HRBPs can better equip their business clients for shared risk taking, we can look to strategies from Aviva and AMRI. Both strategies follow a framework that presents clients with a multitude of forced trade-offs to facilitate an environment where participants can practice risk taking.HRBPs can help to apply formal trainings to the real-life scenarios their clients face every day to bring examples to life. Of course, the techniques learned in these sessions only go as far as the participants choose to take them in their work, and this is precisely where HRBPs can step in to assist in these proven practices.

Aviva’s Judgment-Building GameAviva, a British multinational insurance company, built an online “choose your own adventure” game that allowed business leaders to practice risk taking and apply their judgment to different cases. At the completion of the game, Aviva also facilitated a team discussion to explore potential implications for how the team approaches its work. The game started by prompting business leaders to choose between two seemingly good options — a situation the clients of HRBPs frequently

face. The decisions the participants make in this portion of the game are not designed to have right or wrong answers but instead to force a trade-off decision with benefits and drawbacks.

After the participants completed the decision-making section, they received immediate feedback to help clarify new priorities and to improve judgment. The purpose here is to sensitize the business leaders to gaps between their current habits and desired outcome. Positive feedback reinforces good decisions by emphasizing why the thought process and choice resulted in success. Corrective feedback immediately following a decision alerts employees to incorrect priorities and provides tips for how to better balance options.

Finally, business leaders reflect on the scenario outcomes, individually and with their team. The reflections helps participants understand their default tendencies and build their judgement. Team conversations allow employees to learn from the experiences and natural tendencies of others, and they help teams understand and optimize their collective growth profile and risk-taking disposition to practically apply the trade-offs they learned.

HRBPS can use these key takeaways from Aviva’s judgement-building game to help promote and facilitate shared risk taking in its client groups. When a member of their client group is presented with a forced trade-off in their work, HRBPs should apply the teachings to first identify the context of the situation. They should help their clients answer:

• What are the benefits and drawbacks of each side?

• How will each decision affect the team and the business?

Once these questions are answered, HRBPs can help to communicate the decision to the rest of the client group in the most effective manner.

To facilitate risk taking, many organizations prepare leaders for individual risk taking.


After the decision is made and its effects have played out, the HRBP can again step in to facilitate an analysis of the decision’s performance. This is where they can take the lessons on corrective feedback from the Aviva game and apply them in a way that helps the client learn from every decision they make. At this point, HRBPs can collect feedback from the team to understand its effect on a greater level and solicit how to better facilitate the risk-taking process in future training sessions.

AMRI’s Strategic Trade-Off WorkshopThe goal of AMRI, an American research and manufacturing organization, in its strategic trade-off workshop differs in application from Aviva’s judgment-building game. Whereas Aviva wanted to prepare its business leaders for risks in their everyday work, AMRI focused on organization-level trade-offs and uniting business leaders to approach these trade-offs in a similar manner.In the digital age, leaders face trade-offs when trying to take risks while also trying to operate and improve existing businesses. Senior leaders face three common trade-offs when taking risks in the digital age:1. Improving operational efficiency versus

investing in new products and services2. Integrating new technologies versus

delivering a single user experience3. Competing in the short term versus providing

long-term value

While not all HRBPs will have clients that make these high-level organizational decisions, the workshop’s teachings apply to the risk taking that their clients face as well. Again, participants are faced with trade-offs without a correct answer, and they must weigh both options. Each decision reflects one side of the three organization-level trade-offs previously mentioned. Senior leaders must be aligned on which side of these trade-offs the organization should prioritize so they are not in conflict with one another.

HRBPs frequently interact with many different members of a team and should have conversations surrounding risk taking with these different members. Thus, HRBPs can play a unique role to ensure teams are aligned in the risk-taking strategies and their clients do not make decisions that could harm the success of other initiatives.

ConclusionTo prepare organizations for the future and shift from solely managing risks to teaching risks, HRBPs have two key strategies to ensure their clients correctly employ shared risk taking, a proven beneficial practice.First, they can facilitate an open conversation to assure all benefits and drawbacks of a trade-off are considered before the decision is made. Once that decision is made, their clients apply what they learned to their next trade-off. This is the essential takeaway from Aviva’s judgement-building game that can be applied to every risk a client takes.Second, HRBPs can work with members of their client group to make sure their responses to trade-offs do not conflict. This results in a united, group-focused risk-taking strategy that can show results in any situation. AMRI focused on this with senior leaders, but the same methodology can be applied to any level of an HRBP’s client group.

Endnotes1 Gartner TalentNeuron analysis2 2019 Gartner HR Trends and Priorities for HR Leaders3 2018 Gartner Strategy in the Digital Era Survey


Introduction

Due to a hypercompetitive external labor market and growing employee career development expectations, organizations are increasingly aware of the value of fostering an effective internal labor market.Increased competition in the external labor market, driven by digitalization, means it takes longer and costs more to hire critical talent. In 2017, 47% of all job postings made by S&P 100 companies were for just 37 roles (see Figure 1). What’s more, historically low unemployment levels have exacerbated this shift. Unemployment throughout the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) stands at 5.4%, and the rate in the U.S. has dipped beneath 4%.1

Support a Vibrant Internal Labor Market as an HRBPBy Rachel Palmer


Internal Labor MarketThe processes, norms and infrastructure within an organization that facilitate the mobility of employees from their current roles to roles — existing or newly created — where there is a mutual fit of skills and interest

While these challenges affect the external labor market, organizations also face challenges that affect their internal labor markets. Today’s organizational structures and career paths dissatisfy employees and leave organizations with internal skills shortages. By providing ease of access to the internal labor market and shifting employees’ promotion-focused mindset to one of growth, HRBPs can help drive business performance and increase employee satisfaction. As the external labor market becomes increasingly competitive, organizations find it harder to retain the talent they already have. A lack of future career opportunities is cited as the top driver of employee attrition by 41% of those who left their organization in 2017. Career opportunities are ranked ahead of compensation (36%) and people management (34%).2

Our analysis of the direct costs that arise from attrition due to a lack of future career opportunities (such as cost of hiring and lost productivity due to the vacancy) shows the cost to the average-sized organization is $49 million annually.3 The associated indirect costs of lost network fit may be even greater.

HR leaders recognize higher levels of internal mobility can alleviate these pressures. But improved mobility is an outcome that depends on the health of your internal labor market. Because HRBPs work closely with leaders and are attuned to the needs of their client groups, they play a key role in building a more vibrant internal labor market. They can do so by enabling managers to have career conversations with employees and supporting simple processes that connect employees with relevant development opportunities they value and that support better business performance.

Figure 1: Breakdown of All S&P 100 Job Postings in 2017 by Role

n = 1,888,159 job postingsSource: Gartner TalentNeuron analysis

47% of S&P 100 job postings in 2017 were for 37 roles.

53% were for 848 other roles.

90% of the S&P 100 recruited for the same 37 roles.


Barriers to a Vibrant Internal Labor Market As HRBPs help to develop their organization’s internal labor market, they must consider the three fundamental barriers employees face when they participate:• Visibility — It’s hard for employees to know

what opportunities are available to them in their own organizations. Only 27% believe their organizations make it easy for them to find job opportunities that match their interests. Furthermore, only 29% think clear processes exist to help them find the right opportunities, as recruiting and hiring managers are coy about existing roles.4

• Cultural norms — Only 37% of managers encourage their direct reports to seek internal opportunities, and only 35% of employees feel comfortable asking for development opportunities from their managers.4 Simply put, most organizations’ cultural norms today fail to support the idea of employees moving across the organization (especially laterally).

• Skills — Even if employees can find internal opportunities to match their interests, many will lack the skills required to fill those jobs. When asked about employees having the necessary skills for future roles, 36% of managers and just 6% of heads of learning and development believe their organization’s employees are ready.4

Empowering Employees Is InsufficientIn response, most organizations concentrate their efforts on empowering employees to take advantage of internal mobility opportunities (see Figure 2). However, relying on employees to drive the internal labor market is insufficient.This approach fails to account for three inherent failures of internal labor markets:• Crowded out jobs — No matter how accessible

organizations make their jobs for employees, the effort required to find the most relevant and interesting internal jobs is greater than in the external job market.

• Shadow market — The internal labor market is informal, opaque and lacks oversight. As a result, even highly motivated employees cannot navigate it.

• Volatile skills needs — Employees are overwhelmed by the pace at which new skills emerge and existing ones evolve. In this context, self-service learning platforms only serve to exacerbate the problem, as employees either freeze in the face of so many options or devote their efforts to developing the wrong skills.

Figure 2: Organizations’ Current Approach to Empowering Employees

Barrier Visibility Culture Skills

Current Approach

Make Jobs More AccessibleMake all jobs as accessible as possible to all employees.

Encourage ParticipationCommunicate what internal mobility is and why it’s important.

Provide Self Service LearningProvide on-demand self-service development resources.



Endnotes1 “Unemployment rate,” OECD.2 2017 Gartner Global Labor Market Survey, n = 84,7113 2017 Gartner Turnover Benchmark, n = 515 organizations ; 2016 Gartner

Departure View Exit Survey, n = 65,008 employees; Gartner Turnover Cost Calculator, n = 421 organizations

4 2018 Gartner Shifting Skills Survey, n = 7,101 employees5 “The New Path Forward: Creating Compelling Careers for Employees

and Organizations”6 2018 Gartner Recruiting Efficiency Survey for Managers, n = 5,6017 Gartner TalentNeuron analysis 8 2018 Gartner 3Q Global Labor Market Survey, n = 4,818 employees

Engineer a Vibrant Internal Labor MarketActively engineer your internal labor market as an HRBP by (see Figure 3): • Pushing the right jobs to employees — Instead

of relying on making all jobs more accessible, the best organizations treat their employees like candidates and proactively push the most relevant roles to them. To increase visibility and facilitate better career management, HRBPs can enable managers to have career conversations with employees. Based on employees’ skills and interests, managers can help employees find the right opportunities.

• Easing the path to participation for all employees — To encourage employees to consider internal movement, HRBPs can help to design simple processes and relevant opportunities that normalize employee participation in the internal labor market and simultaneously address internal skills gaps. Make it easy for active and passive job seekers to explore internal opportunities. HRBPs can help to design internal career movement around relevant career experiences for employees and motivate them with employability rather than title progression to encourage participation.

• Brokering employee development — The most progressive HR functions actively broker their employees’ development, guiding them toward the skills they should develop and

the experiences they need to master them. In partnership with business leaders, HRBPs can help to identify the top skills their client groups need to succeed and then find relevant development opportunities for them to master those skills.

ConclusionIt pays to make this transition. Our research shows having a more vibrant internal labor market results in a 27% increase in discretionary effort and a 33% increase in intent to stay by employees.5 Furthermore, managers report internal hires perform better than external hires across a whole range of measures such as attendance, collaboration, honesty and meeting expectations, which add up to 10% fewer regretted hiring decisions.6


Figure 3: Employees’ Top 5 Work Expectations as a Result of Digitalization

Empower Employees Engineer the Market

Visibility

Culture

Make Jobs Accessible Push the Right Jobs to Employees

Encourage Participation Normalize Workforcewide Participation

Provide Self-Service Learning Broker Employee DevelopmentSkills


https://data.oecd.org/unemp/unemployment-rate.htm

Managing Aggressive People With Dr. Shawn Smith on Talent Angle PodcastBy Hailey Bebel

Aggressive people can bring negative energy into the workplace and cause employee conflict anywhere from the manufacturing floor to the boardroom. Dr. Smith, an expert in dealing with aggressors, shared time-tested conflict management techniques historically reserved for law enforcement, psychologists and other professionals working the front lines of emotionally charged situations. From his various experiences working in a detox facility and with the Denver chapter of the Guardian Angels,1 training companies and government organizations, and designing a violence-prevention curriculum for a traumatic brain injury rehab center, Dr. Smith understands aggressors are either trying to solve a problem with aggression as their tactic or using their aggression as a tool for manipulation. You may have experienced times where you feel anxious around an individual and wonder if you are being manipulated. How can you tell what’s going on?“That’s the test. Are you willing to do something that feels bad to you so that [aggressors] can get what [they] want out of you? And when they find a weakness, or they can breach your boundaries a little bit, then they know they can go a little further,” Dr. Smith says. “Sort of like a predator out on the savannah, watching the herd and sort of poking at the herd to try to figure out where the slow member is.” How do you deal with an aggressor? What do aggressive tactics look like? What is the right way to confront an intimidating person while respecting your own rights? While these questions are applicable in and out of the workplace, HR has a unique opportunity to use the answers to its advantage.HRBPs can take Dr. Smith’s methods and use them to more effectively mediate conflict and create trainings for employees, improving conflict resolution and collaboration while creating a healthier and more effective work environment for everyone.

To successfully cultivate healthy and effective work environments, business leaders and HR professionals must be prepared to manage relationships and mediate conversations between employees or internal groups while remaining sensitive to the interests and concerns of all parties. When employee conflict is left unmediated, it can foster negative emotions and adverse work environments. Unfortunately, conflict mediation becomes increasingly difficult when managing or working with aggressive people. Dr. Shawn Smith, a clinical psychologist and author of five books, including “Surviving Aggressive People” and “The User’s Guide to the Human Mind,” recently spoke on our “Talent Angle” podcast about managing aggressive people.


Key Tips for Dealing With Aggressive PeopleThe 2 Types of AggressorsOne of the first steps to manage aggressive people is to identify the motive for their aggression. Dr. Smith posits that they are trying to solve a problem or manipulating someone for their personal gain. Then, based on the identified motive, you can determine whether the aggressor is either desperate or expert/predatory. Just as aggressors each have a distinct motive, they each have different steps they will take to accomplish their goals and separate mannerisms that can help you identify them:• Desperate aggressors are those who believe

they have essentially run out of alternative options to achieve their goals. Therefore, rather than seeking out targets or purposefully creating intimidating situations like an expert or predatory aggressor, they feel they must resort to aggressive behavior to elicit what they need from their environment. By doing so, they attempt to regain control of a situation. This can become evident through physical signs of distress or aggression when they are in these situations.

• Expert or predatory aggressors are more purposeful and seek to gain personal profit from their aggression. They pursue those they have deemed a suitable target and display a very different type of behavior from desperate aggressors. Predatory aggressors seek areas of weakness in slow, formulaic ways until they breach your boundaries. They do not seem distressed nor upset because they are typically testing limits. This technique can manifest as invading personal space and violating social conventions.

Understand Appropriate ResponsesA critical rule to follow when dealing with aggressors is to establish common ground. Try to incorporate a similarity that you and the aggressor share into the conversation. This will increase their trust that you genuinely have their best interests at heart and ultimately reduce their defensiveness or aggression.

When dealing with a desperate aggressor, the best response is to empathize with their situation. Focus on letting them aggressor know that you understand rather than becoming defensive and casting shame or backing down. Reframe the issue to help aggressors realize the underlying need of their original demand. You must connect with that person and help re-establish control, especially if you are unable to remove yourself from a dangerous situation. However, dealing with predatory aggressors is very different. One response is to shut the predatory aggressor down and be aggressive in return. Another is to create boundaries and exit the situation. This can mean you subtly excuse yourself and avoid being alone with that person.

Do Not Engage in RitualsAlways make sure you have control over the situation. Do not get drawn into aggressors’ rituals, or the formulaic series of actions they carry out to create an aggressive situation. When dealing with an aggressive employee or coworker, the most basic and effective technique is to politely, but assertively, interrupt the ritual and cut through to the point. Is this person telling you a sympathetic story to elicit your compassion and ultimately get something from you? Stop this and ask the aggressor what you can help with today. This sends a message that you are not going to engage in manipulation nor back down. Let aggressors know if they tell you what they need, you will help them if you can.

Practice Makes PerfectWith practice, you can master managing aggressive people. Like playing the piano, the more you practice dealing with aggressors, the better you will be at it. While this does not mean you need to intentionally seek out aggression, it could mean recognizing little tactics and practicing how to respond to them by drawing

One of the first steps to manage aggressive people is to identify the motive for their aggression.


boundaries, redirecting or refocusing an aggressor or exiting an aggressive situation. In fact, not responding to aggressions is a method all on its own.

Watch for Little Acts of AggressionWhen you begin to watch for aggressive conduct, look for small acts as they are more common than large, aggressive behaviors. You may even start to notice the two camps in your workspace: desperate aggressors trying to solve a problem because they feel cornered and predatory aggressors attempting to manipulate someone for their gain.

Managing Aggressive PeopleAccording to Dr. Smith, people who can cultivate positive interactions with anyone are the best at dealing with aggressors. Shaming aggressors who already feel cornered or telling them they are reacting poorly or being unreasonable will only amplify their aggression. The words “calm down” will also inflame any situation. This makes anyone feel ashamed and cornered. When dealing with a predatory aggressor, attempts to knock them down a few notches will have an adverse effect. Depending on the situation and motive, this will increase aggression and potentially lead to confrontation. Rather than challenging aggressors and creating a negative environment, effective leaders and peers will have the ability to send aggressors on their way if necessary but in a way where they still feel positively about themselves. Effective coworkers and leaders can manage a situation without provoking an aggressor to feel ashamed. However, this must also be accomplished without the leader or peer ultimately shaming themselves. Making yourself look small in an aggressor’s view is counterproductive when working with either a desperate or predatory aggressor. You do not want predatory aggressors to think they are more powerful than you, and you do not want to send the message that you are incapable of helping a desperate aggressor. In cases of either desperate or predatory aggression, you want to draw your attention outside of yourself. Focus instead on the overall problem. Let aggressors know you want to help

them get what they want rather than defending yourself, shaming them or backing down from the situation. As a leader, focus on the issue and let aggressors know they have agency and control over their situation. When you do this, you can successfully manage your aggressive employees and mitigate conflict in your work environment. Ultimately, aggressive people can impede effective collaboration and create conflict in a workplace. To avoid this, business leaders and HR professionals must navigate difficult relationships between employees and potential aggressors. This begins by identifying which of the two types of aggressors they are, what their motivation is and how to appropriately respond to their aggressive behavior. This can involve empathizing with their situation or cutting through their manipulation.If you practice how you will respond to aggressors and watch for little acts of aggression around you, you can manage conflict more effectively, create effective trainings for your employees and foster a healthier and more inclusive work environment.

Endnote1 Guardian Angels are volunteers in the community that conduct

safety patrols, address criminal activity, and empower the collective community by teaching practical skills, initiating community programs, and emphasizing cooperation to solve problems.


first quarter 2019 a magazine for hr business partners and ... · — peter hinssen, author of...

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