Trends in HR & Talent - How to Adapt & Change

As I see it, there are some high-level trends affecting human resources and talent right now:

1. LinkedIn saw a huge decline in talent recruitment, dropping from 30% year-over-year growth to mid-20%. Talent is moving away from LinkedIn for jobs.
2. Companies are outsourcing their HR operations to companies like Ultimate and Namely, which are growing fast.
3. Employees are actively disengaged at work and unhappy, both of which are terrible news for employers and their profits.
4. Workplaces are changing, and headquarters are dissolving in favor of dispersed talent. There are companies like Aetna and Intuit, who have done this successfully for quite some time now. As Anna Ress, HR Communications Manager at Intuit, put it, “In today’s global economy . . . We know great talent is everywhere.”

I agree. I believe there are exciting new ways to capture talent. Today, effective HR is disruptive and imaginative. It’s constantly reinventing itself. It has to in order to stay relevant in a constantly changing business environment.

HR Needs to Evolve, Too

Right now, HR practices don’t support employees. Take, for example, administering the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). 2 million would-be and current employees take this assessment every year. Employers love it. It’s simple. It’s egalitarian. It’s measurable.

But MBTI is unreliable. Adam Grant, an organizational psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania, cites some reasons for the test’s inaccuracies.

Instead of focusing on profit-building metrics to show employees’ true selves, I believe we can recruit meaningful and well-suited talent and build the most effective teams by rejecting these year-by-year practices. Companies long ago rejected the philosophy that “this is how we’ve always done it.” It’s time we stopped treating our HR practices that way, too.

Here’s what you can and need to do to revolutionize talent acquisition and retention:

Be More Like Google

Google knows a healthy workplace culture. And they’ve proven that it’s an integral part of company success and growth. Take, for example, Google’s emphasis on making its employees aware of unconscious bias. Laszlo Bock explains that “After going through [the program], about 90 percent of Googlers not only know what bias looks like, but they tell us they feel an obligation when they spot it to step in and intervene.”

Be More Human

Google also places a high value on being yourself at work. In Charles Duhigg’s investigation of Google’s quest to build a perfect team, he highlights employees with high “social sensitivities.” If you want to build trust, it’s crucial that everyone treats each other with respect and is aware of cultural differences.

If you can be yourself, have emotional interactions, and difficult conversations, you’re going to be more successful in the workplace. Build out your HR to create this culture, and your employees will be happier and more engaged.

Understand Business

When you’re in HR, you still need to understand business and your industry in particular. As the structures of companies change, it’s become more important for employees to wear multiple hats. Even if you’re not making important business decisions, it’s difficult to understand how to address your company’s culture if you don’t know the motivations driving its employees.

Get Geekier

Bosses are often wrong. Andrew McAfee is well-known for highlighting moments when c-level idea makers mess up, and what they said was impossible becomes reality. The HiPPOs (Highest Paid Person’s Opinions) aren’t always right. If we use data instead, we get possibility and objectivity, which are hugely important in human resources. Unfortunately, HR is overrun with HiPPos, so I’ve highlighted a few ways I think HR professionals can use data to recruit and manage talent.

Think Exponentially

Exponential organizations, or “unicorns,” are the business model of the future. They’re nontraditional, platform-based, and decentralized. There are some key characteristics of exponential organizations. Model your HR practices in the same way. Your Massive Transformative Purpose (MTP) is recruiting talent.

Resist the urge to silo; instead, integrate human resources into everything you do. Create a workplace culture that staff can get behind. Be a launch pad for employees to pursue greatness.