Oven-Ready HR

In this week’s Oven-Ready HR Podcast we turn to the subject of HR and Data Analytics – the umbrella term that’s used to cover the use of people data in an organisations to identify trends, boost productivity, help with engagement, develop talent, promote wellbeing and solve business problems.

 Data Analytics isn’t of course restricted to our relationship with our employer.  Data Analytics increasingly affects many of life’s major and minor decisions such as who we date, what food we eat, the clothes we wear, where we spend our holidays, who we vote for, what movies we see and where we live.

 And let us not forget that Data Analytics, for the past year, has had an enormous impact, for better or worse, on all of our lives.  Data has been used and shared daily to combat the pandemic with the now famous “R” number the number 1 indicator of success or failure of measures to deal with Covid.

So with analytics and algorithms increasingly influencing our major life decisions with work of course one of life’s key decisions, I’ve turned to a data geek whose mantra is “data beats opinion’ to find out more.

 Joining me this week is Daniel Dore is co-founder of LightWork Global a specialist consultancy business that helps organisations using the leading HR capital management software Workday derive insights and analytics to improve culture and performance.

The future of the office is of particular interest to this week’s Oven-Ready HR guest.  Seemingly a day doesn’t go by without an announcement from an organisation about their plans, or apparent lack of,  concerning a return to the office.  Even the Archbishop of Canterbury has weighed into the debate criticising the ‘inhumane’ approach to work taken by Goldman Sachs.  Without waiting for divine intervention, I thought I’d ask a senior member of the Executive Team at IWG plc, the world’s largest workspace operator about where she sees the future of work.

 As Head of Talent, Francesca Peters plays a pivotal role in shaping the culture, talent and employee experience for some 12,000 colleagues worldwide. Francesca has held a number of senior HR roles within IWG including Global HR Director and her current position as Chief Talent Officer.

In this episode we cover:

• How working from home has affected productivity;
• How IWG believe the hybrid-model of working provides the best solution for employers and employees;
• How important hybrid working is for employee's wellbeing;

As well as the future of the office we also cover:

• How IWG are attracting talent and their use of HR analytics;
• IWG's definition of 'talent' and how this perhaps differs from other organisations;
• The importance of the DEI agenda to IWG and the steps the firm is taking to improve performance
• How IWG embeds its culture and values around the world
• And the opportunity for HR to help drive financial performance 

This week Oven-Ready HR guest is a true market disruptor.  His pioneering approach to business revolutionised the stuffy and staid world of employee benefits, building a business that today counts 9 of the world's top 10 technology firms and 8 of the world's biggest financial services groups as customers. 

As the co-founder of Thomsons Online Benefits and its award-winning  software named Darwin,  Michael Whitfield was the CEO of a global business that at the time of its sale to Mercer in 2016, employed some 650 people in offices around the globe. That was Michael Whitfield 1.0.

Today, Michael Whitfield 2.0, far from spending time on the golf course, is a  passionate and hands-on investor and adviser to a diverse portfolio of disruptive HR tech businesses.  His passion for tech, HR and disruption remains undimmed and this wide-ranging and fascinating interview gives valuable insights from both his former and current business experience.  

We discuss:

• How good organisational culture needs far more than just lip-service and how responsibility for culture starts and ends with the firm's leadership; 
• Diversity and Inclusion will occur naturally if your culture allows it;
• His passion for social-mobility and his thoughts on the government's levelling up agenda;
• His concern and worries surrounding youth unemployment in the UK;
• His scepticism surrounding  the suitability of some University degrees;
• His strong belief in UK tech entrepreneurs and in particular disruptive HR technology.

A captivating interview from a true HR disruptor and visionary.

In this week's Oven Ready HR episode, I grab a few minutes with one of the UKs most senior political figures, a former Culture Secretary, Health Secretary, and Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, unsuccessfully challenged, Boris Johnson for the leadership of the Conservative Party. Today, Hunt is the chairman of the powerful House of Commons Health and Social Care Select Committee, where he is at times challenged and disagrees with the government's response to the COVID pandemic.

He's also publicly disagreed with the proposed 1% pay increase for NHS staff, describing this as a miscalculation, as well as talking about COVID, we also discuss flexible working, toxic work cultures and the challenges faced by the NHS in attracting and retaining talent.  

An exclusive chat with one of the UK's most influential political figures.

The word “hype” is defined as extravagant or intensive publicity and often associated with something considered trivial, faddish, and inconsequential. Hype is used to cloak artifice, create a psychological sleight of hand, and to distract us from normal, rational thought. . At worst, hype is sinister and malign and used to sew division, discord, and resentment. Hype is a key tool in the playbook used by certain political figures on the extremities of the political spectrum, but can hype be positive? Can hype be turned from the malignant to the benign and actually be used as a force for good? Can leaders, organisations, and movements use hype to reinforce their positive purpose and agenda?

My guest Michael F Schein  made it his mission to deconstruct 'hype' and  distilled the approach into 12 specific strategies employed by the world’s greatest propagandists, self-promoters, cult leaders, mischief-makers, and boundary breakers. His brilliant book "The Hype Handbook' has been described as the Rosetta Stone for spreading the word about an idea, a product, or a service.

Looking at HR and Management Thinkers in particular, Michael Schein questions our slavish devotion to individuals such as Simon Sinek.  As Michael says: "... he’s not a social scientist. He’s not a scientist of any sort. He worked in ad agencies before he became a professional guru. So, his best talent is selling stuff. "

Hype aside, this interview is fun, punchy, thought-provoking and alternative.  A real tonic!

https://michaelfschein.com

Barely a week goes by without the mention of allegations of workplace bullying.  From squabbling Duchesses at Kensington Palace to the very public fallouts between senior Government Ministers and their officials, there seems to be an epidemic of workplace bullying.

 As well as the terrible cost to an individual’s mental health, the CIPD estimates that the cost to the economy is some £18 BN in absenteeism, lost productivity and payouts to victims.  But defining bullying isn’t easy.  Unlike Harrassment, there isn’t a legal definition of bullying under the Equality Act 2010 presenting a minefield for HR professionals to navigate.

 But are we really experiencing an epidemic of workplace bullying?  Has what used to be described as high standards direct and forthright behaviour now been re-classified as bullying behaviour? 

This week’s Oven-Ready HR guest is Dr Samuel Farley a Lecturer in Organisational Psychology at the University of Leeds Business School with a particular focus on the Dark Side of workplace behaviour, including bullying, cyberbullying and incivility. Within this field, his interests include the measurement of bullying, perpetrators of bullying and how targets attribute blame for their experiences of harassment.  Sam’s works has published in Medical Education, the International Journal of Human Resource Management and Work & Stress. He has written for The Guardian, The Sunday Times, Cybersmile and Safety Management Magazine.

Oven-Ready HR - Reheated brings a selection of the key moments from Season 1.  The second of two compilation episodes revisits the following interviews:

1. Steve Browne describes an innovative way to hire talent and how poor behaviour defines organisational culture;
2. Emma Jones recommends that start-up and SME organisations should consider HR best-practice at the beginning of their journey;
3. Jarmila Yu and Richard Merrin discuss the special relationship or indeed lack of, between the HR and Marketing functions:
4. Carl Reader looks at the mindset of entrepreneurs when hiring and why under performance is often addressed too late;
5. Aoife Martin vividly describes her conversation with HR when she reached the decision to transition;
6. Marc Effron considers whether the rebrand from 'recruitment' to 'talent' really means anything and how organisational culture affects performance.

The full episodes are all available for download.
 

At the very heart of the debate about the future of work in the UK is this week’s Oven-Ready HR guest. Matthew Taylor is the outgoing CEO of the Royal Society for Arts Manufacturers and Commerce, more commonly known as the RSA, and the former interim director of Labour Market Enforcement, the body created to tackle non-compliance with employment legislation. His 2017 independent report into modern work practises, commonly referred to as The Taylor Review, was the basis of the government’s Good Work Plan. 

In this interview, Taylor argues for a change in the UK tax system to stop exploitation of workers in the gig economy as he considers them particularly vulnerable to unscrupulous firms.  He's also unconvinced that the recent Surpreme Court judgement in the Uber case will have any lasting impact.  He argues that case law isn't the same as a change in the law and the Government have essentially outsourced employment law legislation to the courts.

Taylor is also a former Director of Policy and Chief Advisor on Strategy to the former Prime Minister, Tony Blair, a former Director of the Think Tank, The Institute for Public Policy Research, and a regular panellist for BBC’s Radio Four programme, The Moral Maze.  Matthew was awarded a CBE in 2019 for services to employment rights

In this  episode we take an in-depth look at the fall-out from the ill-fated IPO of co-working giant WeWork.

A business that was created in the sharp-elbowed real estate market in New York, WeWork came to define what an office and organisational culture should look like for legions of Millennials and Generation Z worker.  It spawned countless imitations with competitors scrambling to keep up with its innovations and number of openings.

 At the helm was co-founder and CEO Adam Neumann whose extraordinary energy and vision combined with an enormous talent for self -promotion and propaganda was almost messianic.  Yet underneath a business that seemingly carried all before it were some troubling signs.  

•  A lack of corporate governance and at times an appropriate adult in the room
•   A alcohol-fuelled work culture that appeared more at home in the Frat House than the boardroom
•   A senior team that lacked diversity and where nepotism was celebrated not questioned;
•   The fear and greed of investors seemingly content to pour more cash into a business that was losing focus and continuing to burn through billions of dollars of funding

Charting this extraordinary story is  Reeves Wiedeman whose book Billion Dollar Loser provides a meticulously researched account from WeWorks conception through to its failed stock market debut.  Reeves is a contributing editor at New York Magazine and has written for The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Harpers, Rolling Stone and other publications.

Oven-Ready HR - Reheated brings a selection of the key moments from Season 1.  The first of two compilation episodes revisits the following interviews:

1. Riham Satti discusses how AI removes unconscious bias from the hiring process and whether bias is always bad?
2. Simon Morden explores the role of the manager / supervisor and the affect this relationship has on employee engagement;
3. Professor Dave Ulrich drills down to explain the purpose of HR and why the latest fads are often irrelevant
4. Mark Kass reveals some of the things we've lost by working remotely due to Covid-19
5. Peter Cheese reminds the HR profession to do more to tackle toxic cultures and bullying
6. Charlie Gilkes reveals Covid-19 has taken its toll on him and his hospitality business

The full episodes are available for download.

https://blog.feedspot.com/uk_hr_podcasts/