HR Insights Blog

Also for the benefits, the times change. Along with mobile phones, computers, and corporate cars, new arrivals are coming and the new frontiers of the fringe benefits look to the psychophysical well-being, with an emphasis on anti-stress solutions and sustainability.

Change Management is a hot topic and on the agenda in the current overview of an increasing number of rapidly changing companies for many reasons: acquisitions, mergers, transfers, renovations, and shareholdings. Companies change and this transformation affects people who work there and have to face new roles, acquire new skills and learn to interact with a new business geography, both real and metaphorical.

Waves of changes, is the most graphic description of the first twenty years of the century, and it explains perfectly the dizzying evolution - if not a revolution - of people management and talent development in top organizations in the world.

Hands up if you’ve ‘taken a sickie’ in the past year? Statistically speaking, there’s an 80% chance your hand is still by your side. Well done you. However, that also means that around 20% of us have grabbed an unofficial ‘duvet-day’ at least once in the past 12 months.

1. Recruitment: more and better candidates
Have you ever realized how many brands of ketchup you can find in an average supermarket? And do you realise that you always buy the same brand? Why? Because brands help you make your decision: they subconsciously showcase characteristics that make you decide to buy. 

After hiring the perfect candidate, you want him (or her) to quickly become a loyal and productive colleague. Remember that a new hire will make up his mind about your organization in his first months. And … decide to leave you, or not. Therefore, a solid on-boarding strategy is key. Allow me to share with you some best practices from our Belgian community of Top Employers.

More diverse businesses perform better – it’s a fact. But building a diverse workforce in Africa is not just about ticking the gender and ethnic boxes – it’s about building synergy within diverse teams and cultivating diverse behaviour across the organisation, fortunately, certified Top Employers are getting it right.

Surely, we all have met at least one person who has recently joined the company and has little to no idea of what his/her job is and what exactly they should be doing. Is it because the rookie is incompetent? Let’s disagree on that one. The time has shown that the number one culprit is the employer. Or let’s say their philosophy on on-boarding. On-boarding is now slowly becoming a ‘process’ rather than a ‘one day event’, as we speak. It is fair to say that many of the global organisations, mainly the top performing firms agree to this fact and are revisiting their on-boarding programs and strategies.

A farmer expects the harvest for what he sows. Except for in cases of unforeseen issues, the harvest does not disappoint either. There is an age-old HR saying, “if you pay peanuts, expect to get monkeys”. It has become increasingly important to match compensation with employees’ contribution. In formulating an effective compensation and benefits program, organisations must pay extreme attention to design equitable processes in every regard. There are also a few newer philosophies on compensation that are gaining popularity with evolving HR practices.

What would we do if we were to learn that there is no future in what we do on a daily basis? Would be heartbreaking, would it not? Companies without leaders and an able team are usually known to have no future. In the same way, an employee that has no future in the company is also unlikely to see out a longer tenure. Every one of us are different, unique and possess our own unique talents. It is important to offer impatient workers with hope, restless with peace and anxious ones with a promise of a bigger and better tomorrow. Talent management, Career and Succession management issues are evident in today’s corporate world. This has pushed every little and big organisation to seek application of useful measures in tackling these issues.

Among most of other popular HR practices, ‘Performance Management’ ranks as one of the most mature and essential practices. Coincidently, that’s where the ranking ends. Ranking employees and providing a comparative measure of their performances are considered somewhat ancient now. Instead, the employees want to feel valued through more qualitative performance management methods. Offering the employees with honest regular coaching and feedback has seen to be a trendsetter of an effective performance culture. As predicted, the difference is telling between the top performing firms and rest of the global organisations once again. This difference is mostly if not wholly the consequences of adoption of different performance management strategies. 

The best laid organisational plans will come to nothing if the people in the organisation don’t know about them. Successful companies pull out all the stops to make sure that top level strategy is properly cascaded and communicated.

Discounting the ones born with a golden spoon in their mouths, there is no success or the successful ones without a story behind it. Success that is seen in modern day greats and front runners is sort of the old “tip of the iceberg”. It is usually a result of a perfect harmony of solid philosophy & strategy, hard work and dedication of able men & women. A successful HR discipline within an organisation is not exempt from it either. Most of the leading global companies are using their data and analytics to contribute to its success in organising the people within effectively. But what are they exactly doing is what has interested most of the other global companies and the leaders alike.

It is safe to say that HR practices have majorly evolved in recent times. The focus has also shifted to this greater collective objective rather than what is beneficial for the company alone. In the process, the sense of responsibility in people has triumphed over just “attitudes” for their development. Not only the processes that makes a leader are evolving with collaborative technology but the way we define leaders are changing as well.

Often in a company people rely on external professionals to embark on a path of personal growth. Those external professionals, thanks to Coaching initiatives, help to raise awareness of the abilities, to unleash the power and achieve better goals. In the Hera Group we have built a dedicated team and our competency model, defining the tools and the processes that every internal or external coach must follow.

Yes, expectations have been exceeded. A few years ago it was glimpsed that technology was going to be important in talent managing, but that sight is short: technology is revolutionising the social and organised environment, and, as it couldn’t be any other way, this revolution has exploded too in the managing and development of the talent, and it’s already a reality in the best practices of the most advanced companies. 

The rules of the game have changed in the labor market, and the best companies have known how to take advantage of it and are prepared to offer to the people – all their own talent- what the talent needs. The most advanced organisations develop their attractive capital, that besides attracting to the best professionals, it offers them an environment in which they can develop their potential and their careers, so they can give the best of themselves, maximising the engagement, with a prepared talent ready to assume new challenges. 

The gamification, the game as a strategy of learning and development, is sinking deep into the establishments, achieving one of the most pursued goals by the enterprises: that knowledge and skills get truly acquired and not diluted after stepping out of the classroom door. 

To date, most of the research-based exploration into the impact of human resource management methods has focused on measures that HR professionals can directly influence. These studies have given us a good sense of what HR can specifically do to create internal value, what factors predict individual employee performance, and how to increase workplace satisfaction:

The need for consistently outstanding human resource management is self-evident, but best practices don’t work the same way for every company, and, inexpertly applied, can constrict innovation.