Taking the Human out of HR
Last week I read two articles that seemed that the writing was on the wall for us. The first concerned recruitment being conducted online without any human contact between the hirer and candidates. The second reported on a survey that suggested people did not want to participate in any more teambuilding processes.
As we are in the people business, they both were cause for concern.
Hiring without Humans
“The Future of Hiring: Human Resources, Without the Hiring” by Ken Gaebler, published on TheAtlantic.com, described how some companies were using a computer game to identify the best candidate for a job. In other words the winner got the job. In essence the computer game was an “employment simulation” and naturally was very popular with high-tech firms. The simulation was seen as predicting who would do well in the “real world” facing similar challenges.
Eventually, Gaebler conceded that a blended approach is better as it can use the information from the employment simulation with knowledge garnered through face-to-face meeting.
We, along with many others, have long since used a myriad of approaches to helping companies assess the suitability of candidates for a position, as all the research suggests interviews alone are not the best predictor of ability and/or suitability for a job. The preferred option may include employment simulations, but the information garnered through these needs to be supported with results from psychometrics and more traditional selection processes, e.g. interviews, CVs, etc. Different data sources help create a fuller picture, from which to make a better decision.
The Demise of Team-Building
The second piece of alarming news was a press release from Vodafone. This looked at some of the results from a survey that they commissioned about teambuilding. The study found that a majority (54%) said doing “more” team-building events” would not help them work more effectively with colleagues. Of course I was worried, as we help many companies facilitate team-building programmes. On further inspection, it appears that team-building includes: bungee jumping; bikini clad bed baths, lingerie parties and eating crickets. Thankfully we do not offer any of these.
However the concern remains that what passes as team-building, can do the opposite. Yes it can range from “fun” events to outdoor activities to solving complex problems to getting to know each other better to facilitated sessions dealing with real issues, but without an opportunity to draw out the learning and see what it means for day-to-day working together, it is often assigned to the shelf of experiences, that rarely gets dusted.
I hope and believe that the Human in HR will be there for some time, but the onus is on the human to be relevant, credible and add real value through insightful interventions.
Both suggestions are further evidence of organisations not grasping the nettle – success comes from healthy, functioning relationships at work, where problems are identified early and dealt with appropriately, effectively and sensitively, rather than being ignored and allowed to fester. We need to put the Human into HR before we think about taking it out!