Talent Ecosystem Conference 2017

We were at the Talent Ecosytem Conference 2017 today. The topics covered for the conference in forum style format include:

- Defining the Future of Learning

- How to a Harness the Power of Multi-Generational Workforce

- Design Multi-Generational Employee Experience Journey for Transformation

- Future of Work: Preparing Organizations for the 21st Century Workforce

- Digital HR: Transforming the HR Delivery Model

- Build Value in Employer Branding

Having a forum format is quite a good way to go about it because it's more candid and when the forum lead is a good one, it keeps the topic interesting with the forum speakers and audience engaged. 

Here are some of my takeaway from the sessions:

- when we go digital in HR, we have to consider the digital literacy of our employees, which may be viewed by age group. And what we in HR need is simply patience.

- the Millennials need a safe environment to express their thoughts and ideas. They want a safe space for them to share their mind without the stigma when things go wrong. This is interesting because this is almost an opposite from what Gen-X would expect and behave. 

- companies who put aside their annual employee performance appraisals have brought it back. It is still useful and needed. 

- an organization who wants to build on their employee engagement experience has to start from the CEO. The CEO has to lead, no question about it. Without the CEO, you can either forget it or you leave. It won't happen without an active involvement of the CEO. 

- the HR department is sadly still being mostly regarded as a cost center, a support department when it should be a mission critical center, involved in all strategy and business undertakings of the organizations, not as an after-thought. 

- the HR department has to now be the Marketing department as well, albeit internally. It needs to build its strength in communication and service delivery. 

There is much to done. 

pearlie

It's year-end performance review time

It's time for year-end performance review again. Most managers and employees hate this process but it is something we cannot do without. 

There is really no other substitute for this process, so why not make the most out of it. 

Yes, it does take a lot of time doing it but it will be good to use the time to really engage with our team. 

pearlie

I am back!

I have not flown around for quite awhile ever since I left KPMG but now that I am back into HR Consulting and Training work, I am back at it again and I am back in the game! But for the first time, I flew in and out on the same day, and it is dead tiring.

I woke up at 4.30am, got into a cab at about 5.15am to head off to the airport. Hopped into a plane at 6.15am and arrived in JB safe and sound. I spent the whole day in a client's place and felt alive again as far as my consulting veins are concerned. Flew back at 9.20pm and arrived home at 11.30pm.

Wow, what a day, what a tiring day.

pearlie

First last, last first, last first, first last

I was listening to the Gospel of Matthew this morning on the way to work and this passage struck me.

Matthew 19:30-20:16
30But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.

1"For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard. 2He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.

3"About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4He told them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.' 5So they went.

"He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing. 6About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, 'Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?'

7" 'Because no one has hired us,' they answered.
"He said to them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard.'

8"When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.'

9"The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius. 10So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12'These men who were hired last worked only one hour,' they said, 'and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.'

13"But he answered one of them, 'Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn't you agree to work for a denarius? 14Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?'

16"So the last will be first, and the first will be last."

I am an HR practitioner and every time I read this passage, I can really hear the workers who complained to Jesus, because I do hear it every now and then, and actually I just had an earful of it yesterday, but remember, this is a parable and like any parable, it gave the intended audience at that time, one lesson they need to learn, and the lesson here is pretty clear - in fact, the parable itself is sandwiched by it in a mirror image.

"But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first...So the last will be first, and the first will be last."

It is a hard thing to accept. Sometimes, I try this at work but I know it doesn't work. We talk about fairness, we expect equity, internal and external, and yet there is a truth here in what Jesus teaches: "Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?"

We feel the unfairness sometimes at how the cards are dealt in our lives compared to the others, but I know that when one thinks only about themselves, then there will be unfairness but when we think for the others, there will be rejoicing.

A hard lesson but a needed one, and dead important: First last, last first, last first, first last.

I am taught that when anything is repeated in Scriptures, it is very important. More so here, being repeated in parallel and mirrored in three parts.*

pearlie

* I wonder what this is technically called? Do you know?

The right to complain in the Internet

I am not sure if I have blogged about HR-related issues before and so this might be the first. This news article was published and I think is it in our interest to be mindful of what we do in the Internet.

I have seen people's gripes about work and people in the workplace quite often and have read numerous articles about people getting dismissed or not hired because of the things they say online.

This recent article in the Business Week was about a group of prison guards dubbed the Facebook Five who has gone to an Australian court to fight for the right to complain about their boss on the Internet.

For more, read it here.

pearlie