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When I hear the sentence 'Putting the human back into HR' I always think, when did we have humans included in HR? Never, and we know that! For a long time, we have built processes, policies, procedures, and practices needed to run organisations. During this phase, we had no time to think about our people but now we do.
Okay, but how do we do that? When I ask this question all I get is a plethora of platitudes.
If we want human elements to be included in HR we must look at their experiences. Humans are all about experiences but we ignore them. We sit in our offices or boardrooms brainstorming HR strategies without considering the employees. And don't tell me it is not true because I am sure you cannot answer this question just like 200 HR professionals couldn't when I asked them:
When we don't know anything about employees' experiences how can we talk about 'Putting the human back into HR'? The mindset of HR professionals and corporations is not wired towards listening to employees' experiences because if they were we would not be talking about the simplest thing and blaming it on the advance of AI. 'AI is here but we have to now make sure we don't forget the humans'. Well, you never actually thought about them and that shows in all of your processes, policies, and practices.
The good news is that redesigning organisations and HR strategies with humans in mind is not that difficult. We have done it now with five companies and the sixth is in the making. It is a creative process which makes it the most exciting HR strategy there is. I will put a link to my mini-series about it below so you can learn but here are the basics: You look at your employees' experiences along the seven areas of the employee journey and redesign your processes accordingly:
ATTRACT - You don't lie in your job descriptions (many more to this part). You don't post ghost jobs! You allow employee-generated content because candidates don't trust your polished EVP videos. They trust other employees to tell them what it's like working for you. There are fantastic examples of these on TikTok, with amazing outcomes go and do your research. These companies have no problem hiring as they have constant access to talent. ATS systems are the graveyards of talent so you want to rethink that too!
HIRE - Your hiring process is clear and followed. You don't ghost candidates. You design the interview process in a way that allows the best outcome and experience for the candidate (No competency-based BS. We can do better). You design things in a way so candidates don't leave the interview thinking "What the hell was that?"
ONBOARD - You make people feel welcome. No, not with the goodie bag!!! You prepare people for the job they are hired for. You forget about the 'Hit the ground running' slogan of yours. You build a proper foundation for future performance.
MOTIVATE - Yes, you have moved on from the engagement narrative because that is a manipulation of people. What you want is motivation. Engagement is a made-up concept of the business world but motivation is backed by science. If you don't know what motivates your people you will never keep them with a pizza party on Fridays.
PERFORM - People hate your performance management systems and you keep pushing it down their throats. Why? There are easy ways to manage, measure, and reward performance. Throw the annual appraisal, the 9/12 box exercise and all the rest into the bin. People hate it!
DEVELOP - A personalised approach to talent development is what people want. Ask about their experiences with your TD practices and get creative. This is a beautiful area but we made it a hated process. Employees hear the words 'training', 'learning' or 'online course' and they run for the hills. We ruined their experiences and as a remedy, we force course completion so the training department can justify their salaries.
DEPART - The last impression counts more than the first impression. So you better design employee departure accordingly. Do you have an employee experience recovery strategy in place? No? Your talent pool just shrunk by half!
Here is the thing, if you don't have a talent database system you cannot talk about talent management. You cannot manage talent without a talent database that includes all these areas.
The problem is this: Last week I was talking to a Head of HR with 2000 employees. She said 'I am trying to look after my employees but it is just me and 5 of my team.' I was looking at here thinking, how do you not see the problem with what you just said?????? So I explained it to her.
In your role, you look after the people through a robust HR infrastructure i.e. strategy, systems, policies, and processes and not by going around chit-chatting and handing out doughnuts or organising dance competitions. The infrastructure must be designed in a way that it supports and protects both the business and the people but you are missing the very basics so no, you are not looking after your people. You are exposing them to injustice, low competence, unfair treatment, and poor practices including leadership, and setting the whole organisation up for failure. You believe that employees think that you are nice because you go around with doughnuts but that's not what they need from you! In your role, you protect and support them the way governments protect and support their people; through legislation, policies, systems etc... There is no difference between you and the government when it comes to looking after the people. It is the same principle and I am sure that you can list countries where the government is failing to do its job. How does it feel when the government doesn't listen to its people and just implements strategies or has no strategy? Well, that's how your employees feel about you.
SILENCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Deliberately designing your employees' experiences is the definition of 'Putting the human back into HR' and if you are not doing that you don't get to talk about it.
PS: If you are a business leader and you don't allow your HR person to do their job then you should not be leading that business. You are ruining that business.
If you need help on how to do it, here is a mini-series or we can do it for you!
Ways we can help you:
Or, get the book and do it step-by-step:
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