HR Trends: An interview with Bill Kutik
We had the privilege of speaking with Bill Kutik of Human Resources Executive Online and The Bill Kutik Radio Show. Bill has a lifetime of experience in the HR industry and is considered to be one of the foremost experts in HR technology. He is a constant feature on Most Influential lists relating to HR. As John Sumser of the HR Examiner says, “Bill is the center of the universe in the niche of HR Technology.”
We had a free ranging discussion on some of the various stages of HR practice from recruitment to on-boarding to the creation of a corporate culture. Bill was happy to give us his thoughts on the current state of HR practice in the areas of social recruiting, on-boarding and creating a corporate culture.
Recruiting through social
There is no question that social recruiting is a fashionable idea in HR circles. For a number of years now there have been attempts made to pre-empt the traditional model of hiring by building a pool of potential employees within social networks. HR departments are creaking under the strain of trying to recruit ‘to order’ in order to maintain continuity in the workforce. The old job advertising model, as Bill states, is not working for companies and the targeted talent do not exist in this space anyway. The understanding is that Generation Y are only to be found in online spaces and therefore the social recruitment idea has been mooted as a way in which to find and engage with potentials before they even know they want the job.
However, it is not a simple thing to just create a Facebook or LinkedIn company page, post up some nice things about your company and expect people to Like you or become Followers. In effect, it demands advanced level skills in community building online and this is why it has not been successful. There are exceptions to this, Bill believes Sodexo, the Facilities Management and Services Company, are an example of how to do social recruiting well. Under the stewardship of Arie Ball, VP of Talent Acquisition Sodexo have taken the time and effort to build a community of over 300,000 candidates in a variety of social media channels which has provided them with a ready pool of employees when required.
The value of the data returning to a company from these social networks is critically important also. Companies can mine the data from candidates to tell them if the relationships they are building online are working and whether or not to implement changes in the existing workforce based on that. Potential candidates are far more likely to tell you what you are doing wrong online than in the flesh after they have been employed.
On-boarding
Following on from the recruitment process HR departments have the challenge of integrating and training staff. The notion of on-boarding is in vogue but remains poorly understood. When companies say they have an on-boarding program, it is all too often just a token measure designed to make sure employees know what the company expects of them and what their annual entitlements are.
In reality on-boarding is a complex process of integration. It requires sophisticated engagements by employer with employee. There is the employee orientation, the registration of employee details, employee training, the introduction to the corporate culture and, ideally, the assignment of a buddy to help navigate the initial period. On-boarding can also cover the process of performance review and guidance that takes place in the initial months of an employment.
Bill Kutik is adamant that this on-boarding process should not be merely expository but should truly reflect the culture of the organisation. At the end of a probationary period an employee should be grounded in the company ethos and systems. They should see first-hand evidence of the company’s way of dealing with their employees and, by extension, the company’s way of dealing with their customers.
This period of integration is not, of course, dictated entirely by the company management. There are a myriad of ways in which employees communicate and socialize with each other in online space. The use of technology and social media to help employees integrate is usually not one that is controlled by management, and rightly so, but it is important for HR professionals to be cognizant of the virtual social spaces of the organisation in order to either suggest these spaces to the new employees or to mediate these spaces in the event of abuse.
Company Culture
There are no shortage of companies who present their corporate culture as being something to aspire to. From Zappos’ customer service to Apple’s commitment to quality companies are keen to tell their story as a way of differentiating themselves from competitors. Bill Kutik believes that the management of any company must understand the culture they are promoting and they must ‘live’ it. As Bill says, “If management only cares about money then their company culture is greed”.
He also questions the assumption that company culture can make up for a lack of skills among the workforce. It is tempting to think that management systems and company ethos can craft a productive worker from any raw material. This is to ignore the enormous intellectual capital that employees can bring to an organisation in the form of their skills and intelligence. The most successful corporate cultures are those that can grow and adapt from the input of this intellectual capital.
Bill is hugely impressed with the company culture displayed by Workday, the HR and financial planning software. To him they typify all that is good about company culture as embodied by management. They have a strong culture of respect for staff and customers married to a refreshing lack of politics within their operations. This is aided by a very stable boardroom with 67% of voting rights controlled by the two founders David Duffield and Aneel Bushri. If companies have a clear idea of what their corporate culture is it allows them to communicate this better to staff and customers but it is always a case of management needing to ‘walk the talk’ in backing this idea up.
Conclusion
In this brief sweep through some of the key stages of HR practice from hiring through to on-boarding and on to corporate culture we can see that the profession is changing rapidly. HR spending on tech is increasing through all aspects of the profession and, far from making the job easier, it is putting enormous pressure on HR departments to manage these complex systems with greater efficiency. Never before has the workforce been more mobile or more willing to change jobs and this presents a huge challenge for HR departments. The role is undoubtedly becoming more difficult as the demands and expectations on it grow. It seems the unifying theme of what Bill Kutik is saying is that the HR role needs to be ‘authentic’ in its dealings with employees at all stages of the recruitment cycle. In that way they may avoid the unnecessary employee turnover and gain a loyalty from staff that benefits everybody in the long run.
Image of Bill Kutik courtesy of HREOnline
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