The HR Digest July 2021

MEET

THE THOUGHT

LEADERS CHANGING THE RECRUITMENT INDUSTRY

Editor’s Note

July 2021

At the present time, every company in the world is facing the same question: What’s going to happen when the COVID-19 pandemic is over? Will businesses ever regain normalcy? When the pandemic is over, many organizations will find that their business process has been disturbed in the most fundamental ways.

Our July issue highlights the need to plan for a post-pandemic world where every business’s three most basic questions are answered: How does your company make money? Who do you depend on to drive results? What will the workforce’s behavior look like in the postCOVID world? At the same of the pandemic, some things will regain normalcy, some things will look a little different, and some may never return.

Cheers!

As ever, we look forward to your feedback (editor@thehrdigest.com, @TheHRDigest on Twitter, Facebook.com/TheHRDigest).

The Team Editorial

Design

Anna Domanska Editor-in-Chief

Kevin Paul Sr. Graphic Designer

Priyansha Mistry Editor Anna Versai Sub-Editor

Project Management

Diana Coker Sub-Editor

Tony Raval Project Director

Jane Harper Content Writer

Jay Raol Project Director

Marketing

Advertising

Jason Miller Sr. Project Director

Jay Raol Director – Ad Sales

Technology John Hancock Head-Web Department

Finance Control R R Baratiya

Le Manh Coung Sr Software Coordinator

Julia Hunt Magazine Production

Contents July 2021 HR Drift SAP adopts flexible working for all 100,000 employees / p.8

Leadership Insights How to Win with AI and Automation / p.22

Q&A With Jane How to walk those extra miles as a manager? / p.30

Employee Benefits Reskilling the Future of Work / p.36

Cover Story Meet the Thought Leaders Changing the Recruitment Industry / p.46

Legal Hub Worker Rights for Private Employers / p.59

HR Tools & Technology Weingarten Card: All you need to know / p.64

Success Story HR Goes Agile / p.70

Recruitment Point Hiring the Best People – You’ve got it all wrong! / p.76

Workplace Culture Building the next leadership pipeline with short-term executive programs in Top B-schools / p.86

Training & Development Microtraining: The Beginning of a New Era? / p.98

HR Events Top picks of conferences and professional events around the world / p.106

SAP ADOPTS FLEXIBLE WORKING FOR ALL 100,000 EMPLOYEES SAP headquarters in Walldorf, Germany.

It is true that life at SAP is balanced and fair. After receiving overwhelmingly positive feedback on the experience of remote working during the Covid-19 pandemic, the software giant resolved to make things more balanced. The group is adopting flexible working for its 100,000 employees around the globe.

Germany-based SAP said internal polling found that 94% of workers wanted to take advantage of the joys of working flexibility, while nearly half planned to work in the office for one or two days a week in the future.

“It gives employees 100% flexibility,” Julia White, SAP’s recently appointed chief marketing and solutions officer, said in an interview.

In an email sent to employees, SAP said it was adopting a “flexible and trust-based workplace as the norm, not the exception.”

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SAP employees will be able to work remotely or at the office, and it will be possible for them to set flexible schedules. The group plans to redesign its office spaces to welcome teamwork and collaboration.

The group’s decision to adopt flexible working comes after several companies, including PwC, EY, Google, and Facebook, to permanently adopt work from home even after the lockdown orders ease. EY is the third of the UK’s Big Four accountants to embrace hybrid working after the pandemic. Professional services firm PwC told its 22,000 staff in March that they would spend an average of two to three days a week in the office after the pandemic ended. KPMG’s 16,000 staff will spend six days of every fortnight working from home.

SAP headquarters in Walldorf, Germany.

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AMAZON UPDATES DRUG SCREEN PROTOCOLS IN LIGHT OF WEED LEGALIZATION Amazon supports the federal legalization of marijuana, and that the world’s second-largest private employer is revising its policy to make it more employee-friendly. The twin announcements, Amazon said, are pointed toward reiterating the retailer’s commitment to being a top employer.

In a blog post, Dave Clark, CEO of Amazon’s worldwide consumer division, said changing state laws on cannabis mean Amazon will no longer include the substance in the company’s pre-employment drug tests and that the drug will now be treated the same as alcohol.

Positions subject to regulations by the US Department of Transportation will still include marijuana test. Amazon will “continue to do impairment checks on the job and will test for all drugs and alcohol after any incident.”

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Amazon is also looking to change its Time off Task policy, which tracks workers’ productivity by analyzing the time they spend on breaks.

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Clark also added that Amazon is supporting a federal marijuana legalization bill, the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act. “We hope other employers will join us, and that policymakers will act swiftly to pass this law.”

Amazon is also looking to change its Time off Task policy, which tracks workers’ productivity by analyzing the time they spend on breaks.

Commentators have said that Time off Task adds to an unpleasant atmosphere that dehumanizes workers.

“The primary goal of the Time off Task metric is to understand whether there are issues with the tools that people use to be productive, and only secondarily to identify under-performing employees,” Clark wrote. “We’re now averaging Time off Task over a longer period to ensure that there’s more signal and less noise—reinforcing the original intent of the program, and focusing Time off Task conversations on how we can help. The goal is to re-focus the conversations on instances where there are likely true operational issues to resolve. We believe this change will help ensure the Time off Task policy is used in the way it was intended.”

In 2020, Amazon spent more than $1 billion on wellbeing measures, such as, expanding a program that offers meditation, stretching, nutritional guidance, as well as buying protective gear to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The retailer also hired 6,200 employees to its workplace health and safety group.

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WOMEN WIN CLASS ACTION STATUS TO SUE GOOGLE OVER PAY DISPARITY Four female ex-employees of Google have won a class-action status to pursue a gender disparity lawsuit against the company on behalf of nearly 11,000 women.

The lawsuit alleges that Google pays men more than women for the same role in violation of California’s Equal Pay Act. According to them, Google paid its female employees nearly $17,000 less per year than male counterparts. “Google paid women less base salary, smaller bonuses, and less stock than men in the same job code and location,” they said.

The case is seeking more than $600 million in damages. The suit was filed in 2017 by the women who claimed that their career opportunities were slowed up the “job ladder” compared to their male colleagues, resulting in lower salaries and bonuses.

“This is a significant day for women at Google and in the technology sector, and we are so proud of our brave clients for leading the

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way,” Kelly Dermody, an attorney representing the women, wrote in an email to Bloomberg. “This order shows that it is critical that companies prioritize paying women equitably over spending money fighting them in litigation.”

The US Department of Labor also sued Google for the same laxity in 2017, and for refusing to disclose its compensation data. It found that Google was responsible for “systemic compensation disparities against women pretty much across the entire workforce.”

A Google spokesperson wrote that the company believes in equity in its policies and practices the same. It said the company has performed a “rigorous pay equity analysis” annually for the past eight years. “If we find any differences in proposed pay, including between men and women, we make upward adjustments to remove them before new compensation goes into effect.”

The statement claimed that Google had made “upward adjustments” for 2,352 employees across the company, for a total of $4.4 million in 2020. Google had over 135,000 employees as of December.

The trial is expected to start sometime next year.

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Women seeking fair play in compensation have not found much traction in the US courts. Female engineers at both Twitter Inc and Microsoft Corp were unable to bring about a class-action lawsuit against the companies for gender bias.

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HYBRID WORK MODEL WILL ERODE ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE, SAYS AUDITORS’ POLL Research conducted by the Chartered Institute of Internal Auditors, says that hybrid working is leading to a “culture crisis” for companies.

In a poll of more than 700 senior auditors by the institute, almost half said that organizational loyalty was lost in this new mode of working. Also, retaining talented employees had become a problem, along with detecting fraud.

Google, Microsoft, EY, KPMG and PwC and law firms Clifford Chance and Freshfields all have adopted the new model of work from home and have indicated that they will be making it a permanent part of their business model.

Auditors across the UK and Europe participated in the CIIA poll.

The results “highlight a rising post-pandemic organizational culture crisis, which has the potential to trigger a chain of negative impacts across wider business structures”, the CIIA said. Heli Mooney, head of internal audit at Ryanair, said: “Most businesses are focusing on ironing out issues of the hybrid working model from technical and practical perspectives.”

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A dilution of strong organizational cultures will lead to risks for management—mostly with retention of talent and increased chances of fraud, Heli Mooney, head of internal audit at Ryanair.

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Mooney believes that a dilution of strong organizational cultures will lead to risks for management—mostly with retention of talent and increased chances of fraud.

Remote and work-from-home options have become a necessity in the new world of the Pandemic, which has led to almost a yearlong lockdown period across the globe. Companies were forced to adopt the option if they wanted to ride over the crisis and keep the work and home fires burning.

For some companies, the transition was easier as they were already offering flexible work schedules and were even technically equipped to do it with all the digital tools available.

Others had to adopt and adapt to the new model of working quickly. The pros and cons notwithstanding, the need of the hour was to keep the account books ticking. Most found the new model lucrative and more productive. The hybrid model of some days in office and the rest work form home seems to be the ideal answer to tide over the disconnect.

But John Wood, chief executive of the CIIA, warned that “the risk of a culture crisis must be considered by all businesses pursuing a hybrid business model”. “It has never been more urgent for businesses to develop strong systems to both identify and mitigate risks to organizational culture, before it becomes a crisis,” he added.

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AMERICAN EMPLOYERS’ PUSH FOR MINIMUM WAGE INCREASE FACES AN UPHILL BATTLE The United States has a record 8.1 million job openings. The media likes to call it a ‘labor shortage.’ Despite increased vaccinations and easing COVID-19 restrictions, the nation is facing a labor shortage unlike any other in the past. It’s no wonder that the current labor crunch is prompting American employers to increase the minimum wage in hopes of attracting job seekers.

In the last few weeks, America’s biggest financial institutions and corporations announced a minimum wage increase in a bid to attract workers. Bank of America on Tuesday announced it was increasing its minimum wage to $26 an hour by 2025, according to chief executive Brian Moynihan.

This isn’t the first time the American multinational investment bank and financial services has raised wages. In 2017, BoA raised its minimum wage to $15 an hour. Two years later, it announced it will pay $20 an hour over the next two years.

BoA achieved that goal in 2020 – a year earlier than expected.

The world’s biggest online retailer Amazon a pay raise for over

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May 2021 jobs reports added 266,000 to the total job losses. While the economy is recovering it is still millions of jobs short of where it was in February 2020.

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500,000 workers across its fulfilment and transportation sectors.

This pay bump could be as low as an additional 50 cents an hour to as much as three extra dollars per hour. Amazon said it is investing over $1 billion in this 2021 minimum wage increase which also covers additional sign-on bonuses of up to $1,000, in addition to “industry-leading benefits, which include health, vision, and dental insurance, 401(k) with 50% company match, paid parental leave, and access to company-funded upskilling opportunities, including Amazon’s innovative Career Choice program, which prepays 95% of tuition for courses in high-demand fields.”

McDonald’s recently announced it is raising wages at its 650 company-owned restaurants, not the 95% of its 14,000 restaurants in America which are independently owned. Union activists say it isn’t enough for minimum wage workers who went to work daily during the pandemic and helped the service industry survive or thrive.

Earlier this week, Chipotle announced it will raise hourly wages at its restaurants in hopes of hiring 20,000 new workers and, in late March, Olive Garden owner Darden Restaurants said it was lifting hourly wages for about 20% of its workers to at least $10 an hour – including tips.

Other big name corporations such as Costco, Best Buy, Signet and Starbucks have joined the growing list of companies announcing a minimum wage increase over the past year – with many guaranteeing to increase minimum wage by $15 an hour or above.

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How to Win with AI and Automation By: Anna Versai The world’s most capitalist economies are witnessing a period of rapid transition. Developments in digital technologies, inclusive of artificial intelligence (AI) and automation, are estimated by some to create the potential for a tremendous reduction in the volume of work. Others see scope of digital technologies to transform the quality of work.

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Most nations already face the challenge of adequately training their labor forces to meet the current needs of employers. Across the OECD, spending on worker training and development has been declining over the last twenty years. Spending on worker transition has also continued to shrink as a percentage of GDP. While globalization may have helped increase economic growth, the wage and dislocation effects on people were not properly addressed. Most studies suggest that the scale of these issues is likely to amplify in the coming many years. It has also been found that huge scope labor force changes can affect wages; during the 19th century Industrial Revolution, wages in the United Kingdom stayed stagnant for about 50 years despite rising economic growth—a phenomenon known as “Engels’ Pause,” after the German philosopher who identified it.

In the search for measures and policies to address these difficulties, we should not seek slow integration of digital technologies. Organizations and governments should harness AI and automation to benefit with the improved productivity, performance and overall societal benefits. These innovations will make the financial benefits that will help societies manage workforce transitions. The focus should be on approaches that ensure that the workforce transitions are as smooth as possible. This is going to require more scalable solutions in a few key areas:

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ENSURING STRONG GROWTH.

A robust growth isn’t the answer for all challenges posed by AI and automation, but it is essential for job growth and overall prosperity. Productivity is a critical element to economic growth.

EVOLVING LEARNING FOR TRANSFORMED WORKPLACE.

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Lawmakers working with education providers and organizations themselves could do more to improve fundamental STEM abilities through the educational systems and improved on-the-job training.

An enhance emphasis on creativity, life-long learning, and critical thinking is required.

INVESTING IN HUMAN RESOURCES.

It is critical to reverse the trend of declining public investment in worker training in poorer nations. Through tax cuts and other incentives, lawmakers can urge organizations to put enough resources into human resources, including job creation, training and development, and wage growth, akin to incentives offered in the private sector to invest in human capital.

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IMPROVING WORK MARKET DYNAMISM.

Today’s digital platforms can help match people with new jobs and reestablish vitality to the labor market. Evidence points out that wages rise when more people switch jobs, even within an organization. As more jobs and income earnings opportunities arise, including the gig economy, we should strive to tackle for issues like better benefits, wage variability, and worker classification.

REDESIGNING WORK.

Work processes and workspace design should adjust to a renewed era where individuals work more closely with AI. This is both a challenge and an opportunity, as far as establishing a safe and productive work environment is concerned.

Organizations are evolving as well, as work becomes more synergetic and organizations try to become more agile.

RETHINKING WAGES.

If AI and automation brings a critical decrease in employment and/or depressed wages, a few ideas like universal basic income, adapted social safety nets, support for mobility, and conditional transfers could be tried. The key will be to adopt solutions that are financially viable and include the various roles that work for individuals, including providing a sense of purpose.

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RETHINKING SUPPORT FOR WORKERS AFFECTED.

As work evolves at rapid paces of transition between geographic locations, sectors, and skill requirements, many individuals will require help adjusting. Many best practices to deal with a smooth transition are available, and should be embraced, while new methodologies should to be tried and tested.

EMBRACING AUTOMATION AND AI RIGHT NOW

Even as we encapsulate the usefulness of these digital technologies, we need to effectively prepare for the risks and mitigate any dangers.

The use of data should consistently consider concerns, including data security, privacy, misuse, and potential issues of biases, gives that lawmakers, tech and other companies, and people should find effective ways to address.

There is work for everybody today and there will be work for everybody tomorrow, even in a future with automation. However that work will be different, requiring new skills, and far more adaptability of the workforce than we have seen. Retraining workers across all generations for the coming difficulties will be a goal. Business leaders, government, and innovators all need to cooperate to more readily organize public and private drives, including making the right incentives to invest more in human capital. The future with AI and automation will be challenging, yet a lot richer if we learn to harness the digital technologies while mitigating the negative effects.

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Q&A with Jane 30

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The brutal and straightforward answers to HR-related queries and concerns.

Send in your queries with the subject line ‘Ask JANE HARPER’ at info@thehrdigest.com

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MOTIVATION AT WORKPLACE: How to walk those extra miles as a manager?

Management is nothing more than motivating other people–American automobile executive, Lido Anthony “Lee” Iacocca.

What is makes organizations like Apple, Google, Facebook rule the market? It is not just the innovative ideas and the services they offer but the brains behind those plans.

Human resource is the most valuable asset to any institution, though often undermined. The progress of an organization depends on their proper management. A motivated workforce is a key to the rise of any successful organization. Herein lies the role of the manager.

As a manager, you hold the key to their morale. An employee who feels valued will try to be enthusiastic about the work or role assigned to him. A small tweak in your expression can change their frame of mind for the day. From the moment you walk in till the moment you leave the premises, every gesture sets the mood for the day. Your body language when you interact with an employee or the tone of your conversation, the way you carry yourself while conducting office rounds are all methods to communicate.

To improve the morale of the employees, you need to make them feel appreciated. This might seem like a challenging task but it is oh so simple.

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Here are a few tips –

THE ART OF COMMUNICATION IS THE LANGUAGE OF LEADERSHIP. Proper communication can enhance the work capacity of an organization. Always set clear objectives for what the company expects from the employee. His Job Description should be clear as day. An employee who has a transparent idea of goals will always perform better.

LEND THEM YOUR EAR. Another key aspect of communication is to be a good listener. Hear what is not being said. Read between the lines. Employees often respond to leadership which listens to them and their grievance. Always listen to understand.

WHAT IS IT JOE? Always be there for your employees. Interact with them regularly. Try to know them not just as an employee but as a person. This will help you in understanding what motivates them and what irks them. Try to solve their problems. This will enhance their trust in you. Employees often engage with employers and the organization when they are treated more than assets.

BODY SPEAKS A THOUSAND WORDS. The way you carry yourself, your gestures, every tweak of your expression speaks volumes.

The expressions on your face can give away your thoughts. Be careful in your interactions. Try to be pleasant to your employees. Keep a check on those formidable glares. Warm gesture towards the employees makes them feel respected and valued.

IT’S NOT WHAT YOU SAID BUT HOW YOU SAID IT. Remember Joey’s dismissal in Chandler’s tone? It is often the tone that sparks conflict. This is a common occurrence in an office setting where

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people come from different backgrounds. One’s intention is often lost in the way his words come out. A famous Chinese proverb goes ‘The tongue can paint what the eyes can’t see’.

The sarcasm in the tone, even if used in good humor, can often offend someone. As a manager, ensure that your tone is polite no matter the designation of an employee. A polite demeanor will make the employees feel respected.

DO NOT BE THE OFFICE BULLY. A good manager never threatens the employees about their job or salary. Nor does he insult them in public or private. He/She will also ensure that his employees are safe from any other commotion. Any conflict should be managed politely, probably in the presence of HR.

NEXT TO EXCELLENCE IS THE APPRECIATION OF IT. All humans crave attention and recognition. In the workspace, it is the responsibility of the manager to congratulate the employees even on their smaller achievements. Positive feedback makes an employee feel appreciated. An employee who feels appreciated will always do more than what is expected of him.

MAGIC OF CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM. Criticism can easily break the morale of an employee. Choose your words wisely. Ensure that the employee feels relaxed in your presence and engage the words in a positive, goal-oriented manner.

TO ERR IS HUMAN. It is a human tendency to make mistakes. A good manager understands that and gives his employee the chance to learn from their mistakes.

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GIVE WINGS TO THEIR THOUGHTS. Give your employees freedom to express and freedom to work. Do not breathe down their neck. The most sort after managers are the ones who know that freedom gives them a sense of security and happiness. It allows them to bring out better ideas.

DO NOT PLAY FAVORITISM. Humans are not free from bias.

But, as a manager, you need to keep a check on it. Favoritism induces unnecessary rivalries and hate. It will also be a golden ticket for the office gossip mongers. Try to judge ideas and not people. Bias regarding gender etc can also land you in trouble.

DO NOT BE A DULL JANE. Have a work-life balance. Do not be that manager whose idea of life is his workplace. Encourage your employees to have a life outside the office and to pursue hobbies too.

WORK AND LEARN. Most of the learning happens on the job.

Nothing can beat practical experience. Create an environment where your employees can constantly learn and evolve.

SUCCESS IS WHAT YOU INSPIRE OTHERS TO DO. Being successful doesn’t mean only building yourself. It also involves motivating, inspiring and pushing others to be their best versions. It is your job to motivate them by engaging their minds and hearts. Humans learn by example, so you need a daily dose of motivation with a pinch of ideas to make your employees feel involved.

Got something to ask? Send your questions to info@thehrdigest.com.

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RESKILLING THE FUTURE OF WORK By: Jane Harper

We are at a major inflection point that will largely determine the future of work. By 2030, according to a recent McKinsey Global Institute report, Jobs lost, jobs gained: Workforce transitions in a time of automation, 375 million workers - or roughly 14 percent of the global workforce - may need to switch occupational categories and learn new skills as digitization, automation, and advances in artificial intelligence (AI) disrupt the world of work. History, if it has taught us anything at all, has taught us that technology has created large employment and sector shifts, but also widened job opportunities.

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A STICTH IN TIME

The word crisis has given us some of the most beautiful lines in English literature, as seen in Oliver Twist: “It had been bright day, for hours, when Oliver opened his eyes; he felt cheerful and happy. The crisis of the disease was safely past.

He belonged to the world again.”

In other contexts too – war or peace, fortune or ruin, disease or recovery, coronation or abdication, a new parliament or not – a crisis is a transitional stage leading to something. This is particularly true today.

The COVID-19 pandemic has upended life with its devastating effects all over the globe. From the personal (losing loves ones) to the professional (losing jobs), the fallout is reaching every aspect of people’s lives. Now, and for the foreseeable future, we must adapt the new normal to survive. Not all of this is news to chief executives and other business leaders. ‘Reskill to repurpose’ is the new mantra for survival in a post-

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COVID-19 economy and leaders are motivated to move past the nexus of this seismic force. In a recent McKinsey Global Survey on the future of workforce needs, nearly nine in ten executives and managers say their organizations either face skills gap already or expect gaps to develop within the next five years.

But less than half of the respondents had a clear sense of how to address the problem.

This begs a pressing question: What do we do next? Amid pandemic, it is crucial to address this question.

This is a key moment for business leaders to respond promptly and with urgency. Organizations are now facing a learning curve as managers scramble to lead their teams virtually. It is a tough time as they bank on social capital and how to maintain cohesion without the benefit of informal coffee, lunch or smoke breaks. As we return to the workplace post-pandemic, a new set of skills is also likely to emerge for the transition.

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In terms of magnitude, it’s akin to the Industrial Revolution that was felt on the agricultural community. It brought large-scale coal-based industries like mining, steel, pottery, and textiles, which helped create the foundation of modern society and wealth. There were short-term job losses, but new jobs were created that did not previously exist. The Fourth Industrial Revolution evokes fear that unskilled workers will be replaced by machines. If history is any guide, we could also expect the current Industrial Revolution might lead to an increase in employment opportunities. Humans and machines need to work together, and this is where executives need to come to the fore.

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The world of work faces a paradigmatic transition. According to McKinsey, AI and automation will displace between 400 million and 800 million individuals by 2030. That’s one-fifth of the global workforce. New jobs will be available, but people will have to find a way into these jobs. China faces the largest number of worker displacement – up to 100 million, or 12 percent of the workforce by 2030 – due to automation. For richer nations, the share of the workforce that may need to reskill and find new occupations is even higher: Nearly half in Japan, and up to one-third of the workforce in the United States and Germany.

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ACCELERATING UPSKILL

Many organizations are struggling to figure out how job roles will evolve and what kind of talent they will require over the next decade. According to a McKinsey survey, some executives see ‘reskilling’ as a top priority – 42 percent in the United States, 24 percent in Europe, and 31 percent in the rest of the world admit they currently lack a “good understanding of how automation and/or digitization will affect our future skills needs.’

Such a high degree of trepidation is understandable. This is the beginning as executives face bigger challenges ahead.

Organizations will need to ensure that people have the skills and support needed to transition to new jobs. Nations that fail to manage this transition could see rising unemployment and reduced wages.

The need to reskill and enable individuals to learn marketable new skills during their lifetime will be a critical challenge – and for poorer nations, a sweeping challenge. Reskilling will become more important than ever as the skills needed for fulfilling career changes. Organizations can take a lead in certain areas, including on-the-job training and development as well as provide opportunities for individuals to upgrade their skills.

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Caption: Explain why developing and poorer nations will not be affected. For Example, India, China. Rural farmers.

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CO-DESIGNING A BETTER FUTURE

Greater organizational fluidity will be required in workforce management (WFM) to smooth transitions we expect. This includes reestablishing now-fading labor mobility in richer economies.

Digital talent platforms can cultivate that fluidity, by collaborating with workers and organizations looking for their skill upgradation and by giving a surfeit of new work opportunities for those open to taking them. Lawmakers in nations with inflexible labor markets can learn from other countries that have deregulated, like Germany, which revitalized its federal unemployment agency into a powerful job-matching entity.

We have learned from history that wages for some occupations can shrink for quite a while during labor force transitions. More perpetual policies might be necessary to increase wages and support future aggregate demand ensuring workforce fairness.

More comprehensive minimum-wage policies, universal basic income, or wage gains tied to growth are solutions that could be explored.

Business leaders, policymakers, and individuals all have constructive and significant tasks to carry out in smoothing labor force transitions ahead. History shows us that nations across the globe, when faced with monumental challenges, often rise to the occasion for the health and wellbeing of their citizens.

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Unfortunately, investments and policies to support the workforce over the past few decades have shrunk. Public spending on workforce reskilling and support has fallen in most member nations of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Education models have not on a very basic level changed in 100 years. It is imperative to reverse these trends, with governments making labor force changes and job creation a more exigent need.

Organizations will be on the front lines of the workplace as it transitions. This will require them to both revisit their business processes and reassess their strategies and labor force needs, deliberately considering which individuals are needed, which can be redeployed to other positions, and where new talent might be required. Many organizations are finding it is in their self-interest—as well as a part of their responsibility—to reskill workers for a new world of work.

People, too, will need to be better prepared for a rapidly evolving world of work. Acquiring skills that are sought after in the future of work will be critical to their own prosperity. There will be demand for human labor, however workers everywhere will need to reskill transitional notions of where they work, how they work, and what talents and skills they bring to this new world of work.

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MEET THE THOUGHT LEADERS CHANGING THE RECRUITMENT INDUSTRY

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The recruitment industry has seen some significant changes in the last two decades. Earlier, recruiters were the backroom boys whose job entailed no more than cold calling potential applicants. As the workplace ethos changed with technological advances and a new generation of workers, the focus has shifted to employee value proposition and employer branding by vigilant recruitment leaders.

We must give credit where credit is due: the dynamic changes in the recruitment industry have occurred at the behest of some of the most influential thought leaders.

To help you keep up with the latest trends in recruitment and talent acquisition, we’ve compiled a list of Recruitment thought leaders. By following them, recruiters can adopt what’s relevant and stay on top of industry trends to grow their careers and their business.

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Josh Bersin Josh is a global HR analyst, public speaker, and advisor on the topics of corporate HR, talent management, recruiting, leadership and management, technology, and the intersection of work and life.

In 2001 Josh founded Bersin and Associates, a leading provider of research-based membership programs and advisory services in the human resources (HR), talent and learning market. In 2012 Bersin was acquired by Deloitte, and became Bersin by Deloitte.

In mid-2018 Josh resigned from Deloitte and began the Josh Bersin Academy, the s the world’s first global development academy for HR and talent professionals and a transformation agent for HR organizations.

Josh and his team of experts offer research, advisory services, the Global HR Capability Project, and the Josh Bersin Academy, the only end-to-end platform that offers content-rich online programs, a carefully curated library of tools and resources, and a global community that helps HR and talent professionals stay current on the trends and practices.

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Lou Adler Lou Adler is the CEO and founder of Performance-based Hiring Learning Systems – a consulting and training firm helping recruiters and hiring managers around the world for corporates hiring leaders and teams. Lou is the authot of the Amazon top10 success, Hire With Your Head (John Wiley and Sons, third Edition, 2007), The Essential Guide for Hiring and Getting Hired (Workbench Media, 2013) and the Lynda.com Performancebased Hiring video training program (2016). His current “Diversity Hiring without Compromise” initiative is focused on developing a colorblind hiring process that ensures the outstanding talent gets hired regardless of race, age, religion, sexual preference and physical deformities.

Adler is one of the top bloggers on LinkedIn’s Influencer program writing on the latest trends in hiring and employment. His articles, quotes and research can be found in Business Insider, Bloomberg, SHRM, and The Wall Street Journal. The company’s new mobile ready learning platform – Win-Win Hiring Learning Systems – gives instant access to tools needed to find and hire top talent.

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Adam Grant Adam Grant has been Wharton’s top-rated professor for 7 straight years. As an organizational psychologist, he is a leading expert on how we can find a leading voice in how people find motivation and meaning in their lives. He has been recognized as one of the world’s 25 most influential management thinkers and Fortune’s 40 under 40.

He is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of 5 books that have sold millions of copies and been converted into 35 language: Think Again, Give and Take, Originals, Option B, and Power Moves. His books have been named among the year’s best by Amazon, Apple, the Financial Times, and The Wall Street Journal.

Adam is the host of WorkLife, a chart-topping TED original podcast. His TED talks on “Are you a giver or a taker?” have been viewed more than 25 million times. His speaking and consulting clients include Bridgewater, Google, the Gates Foundation and the NBA. He writes on work and psychology for the New York Times, has served on the Defense Innovation Board at the Pentagon, and has been honored as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.

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Ellyn Shook Ellyn Shook is Accenture’s chief leadership & human resources officer, responsible for helping the 537,000 workers of Accenture succeed both professionally and personally. Her global team of HR experts is re-imagining the future of work.

Ellyn is a member of Accenture’s Global Management Committee. She is a promoter of diversity and inclusion, and Accenture has been widely recognized as an employer of choice for its D&I efforts.

Before being named CHRO in 2014, Ellyn was senior managing director— Human Resources, and led Accenture’s Human Resources Centers of Expertise and the Human Resources Business Partner Organization. In this position, she was liable for the plan of Accenture’s ability engineering, just as the organization’s absolute prizes, ability store network and ability improvement programs. Earlier in her career, she was head of global compensation, responsible for designing and implementing executive pay and equity programs – including equity grants at the time of Accenture’s IPO in 2001.

Ellyn is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Shaper Community Foundation Board, the Women’s Leadership Board of the Women and Public Policy program at Harvard’s Kennedy School, and the steering committee of Paradigm for Parity. She additionally serves on the HR Policy Association’s Board of Directors and is an active member the HR50 division of World50.

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Brian Tippens Brian is responsible for a wide range of companywide initiatives that bolster and influence HP’s diversity & inclusion philosophy, goals, and business results. In partnership with HP business leaders and employees across the globe, Brian and his team focus on ensuring that the company continues to innovate for the future of work.

Brian is a 14 year veteran of HP, with over 2 decades of experience in the IT industry. He has a strong background and record of human resources leadership. His previous role in HP was Global Real Estate (GRE) Director of Energy, Sustainability and Integrated Facilities Management (IFM). In this role Brian was responsible for Global Energy and Sustainability Management across HP’s real estate portfolio.

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WORKER RIGHTS FOR PRIVATE EMPLOYERS Employee rights, worker classification, and pay parity are monumental issues that require careful consideration in light of recent and impending changes.

By: Jane Harper

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The COVID-19 pandemic, and the increasing prominence of ESG metrics, has heightened the emphasis on laborer rights and employeeemployer relationships. Regulatory changes, planned reforms, and court decisions in the US, UK and Europe show an evolving way to deal with worker rights, and highlight the need for careful consideration of critical issues. This is an area that will continue to see significant changes, requiring lawmakers to remain alert to the impact of future changes.

What to Know Worker classification: In February 2021, the UK Supreme Court found that Uber drivers are qualified for worker rights rather than more restricted rights as a contractor, and that worker status is a matter of statutory interpretation rather contractual interpretation. The ruling builds on earlier cases, including the 2018 Pimlico Plumbers judgment, and significantly affects UK companies reliant on independent workers.

Further cases are expected to be heard in the coming months. In the same month, Italian authorities ordered four delivery platforms to give full employment rights to more than 60,000 couriers and pay €733 million in fines. Further, Spain recently announced legislation to provide employment rights to gig-economy workers.

IR35: The UK recently included new off-payroll working regulations, under which businesses need to survey the situation with laborers who work through intermediaries. If employee status is determined, the intermediary must play employer’s national insurance contributions as well as operate PAYE withholding, creating a compliance burden for businesses.

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Equality: Equal compensation continues to affect the world of work.

In March 2021, the UK Supreme Court ruled that female shop-floor workers could claim equal pay against a business by comparing their compensation with male staff. In June 2021, the European Courts of Justice found that EU law requires equal compensation for “work of equal value” and that workers in various businesses can look at their pay if it is set by a “single source”. The decisions are likely to usher a wave of similar cases. A UK food retailer was found liable for the racial harassment of one worker by another, as the business had not refreshed its equality training. The decision leaves businesses on the hook if regular diversity and inclusion training and other steps aren’t taken on time.

What to Do The reputational damage brought about by worker mistreatment can leave a lasting impact on a businesses and hurt the odds of a successful IPO or other exit, especially if one of the focuses of primary shareholders is on ESG issues.

Worker classification: The reclassification of independent contractors to workers could prompt significant costs to cover for benefits and compensation plans as well as national insurance. This could substantially change the valuation of portfolio companies like Uber that often rely on self-employment structures to make more profit. Recent regulations highlight the importance of employee-employer relationships work in general. There is little point in reviewing standard form arrangements, or relying on repayments from individuals — instead it is increasingly necessary to dive further and evaluate before classifying contractors as employees.

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IR35: While new businesses and small organizations might be excluded under a “small company” exclusion, most portfolio organizations should consider what cycles are set up for making status determinations, and if PAYE withholding is operated where important.

Equality: Gender pay gap and equal pay claim risk must be considered, especially for retail details, and for any other deal where roles are the target businesses are performed by different genders who are paid differently.

What Next Future change of worker status and rights is likely in the coming years. Following the Uber ruling, the head of the UK Pensions Regulator said gig-economy companies should start offering pensions to people who work for them. The House of Lords Select Committee on COVID-19 contended for new laws to provide independent contractors with better rights. The European Commission launched the first phase of a consultation process into working rights for digital-platform workers.

Beyond Europe, similar issues are being considered in the US. The US government has adopted a pro-union stance, and New York has presented a bill that would give gig workers the option to organize. We expect employment rights and work relations to stay a focal topic for PE to watch in the year ahead.

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WEINGARTEN CARD A landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court ruled that every employee represented by any labor union and are summoned for an investigatory meeting can ask for a steward or union officer to be present during the meeting. It is necessary to receive the protections granted by Weingarten and for which it is necessary for the employee to ask for a rightful representative.

However, most of the Weingarten union members are unaware of the new Weingarten ruling. They don’t even know about their rights, which is why every union member should have a mandatory Weingarten card with them at all times. When the member has a Weingarten card, they can ask for a “Weingarten representative” without apprehensiveness.

This also shows that the person is well aware of visiting the meeting alone with management or having a professional union representative.

Print the Weingarten decision after the investigatory meeting, the union officers and stewards need to print the Weingarten decision to pass on their members. This is mostly done by the union officers who understand the importance of the Weingarten decision. The person can ask the authorities to print the Weingarten decision on the back of their business cards.

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There are different types of Weingarten cards, like Pre-printed and Customized Weingarten cards. There are different types of Weingarten cards- pre-printed and Customised with the information printed and the person’s name and address printed on them. These Weingarten cards are similar to a business card’s size and can easily fit into a wallet or a purse. The Weingarten cards are affordable and are essential for every member to own one, considering the protections by the Weingarten decision for the members.

Weingarten is different from Miranda, another landmark Supreme Court case region. The officers/members of Weingarten don’t require a notice during an investigatory interview. This means that no employer needs to inform their employees that they possess rights to Union representation. This means that the union and the steward should educate their membership by explaining the rights they have.

Many employers issue union contracts in their language, like ‘The employer is well aware of the employee’s right to be given a representation by any steward, or a professional during an investigatory interview.

The employer will also remind employees about rights during the time that they are summoned for an investigatory interview.’ Many local unions offer members with wallet-sized cards that have the following information: ‘If this discussion may in any way lead to my being disciplined or terminated, or affect my working conditions, I will

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respectfully request that my union representative, officer, or steward be present during the time of the meeting.

Until my representative arrives, I have the right not to choose to participate in this discussion.’ The Weingarten Cards (either in English or Spanish) can be ordered easily through the Teamsters Education Department.

To ensure they have a proper investigatory meeting without hassling their rights, they should ensure the following: • Ask their supervisor on the purpose of the investigatory interview and ask if they might be disciplined due to it.

• If the answer is no, then it is mandatory to ask for a written statement to that effect.

• Employees need to participate in the interview only after receiving the statement.

• If the employees don’t receive the statement, they should read them their Weingarten rights, wait for the meeting, take down notes, and contact the union representative.

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• If they are informed that they will be disciplined but won’t be allowed to connect to a union representative, the employee must read them their Weingarten rights and be in the meeting room, take down notes and not respond to anything.

• Employees should immediately contact their union representative after the investigatory meeting.

• Suppose the meeting supervisors allow the employee to have a union representative or a professional to be present during the interview. In that case, they can go forward and participate in the interview.

It is up to the members to insist on the union representation for a card. If they in any way fail to do the same, they may be waived off their rights.

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HR Goes Agile By: Diana Coker

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Most would agree that COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the critical role of HR in supporting organizations through the many challenges since March 2020. HR leaders have been at the front and center in managing the devastating impacts of the crisis from laying off staff to enabling rapid digital transformation for remote working and managing the wellbeing of the workforce.

The challenges remain as HR teams manage the financial impact on the organization and ensure healthy and safety of its returning employees.

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including rebuilding performance levels, digital transformation and positive engagement.HR leaders must ensure the opportunity for re-framing a wider strategy to survive in a post-COVID world.

Capgemini, in collaboration with Scottish Water carried out Workday and Cornerstone to understand it’s vision of a cloudbased HR process while working within the limitations brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic that impacted the latter stages of the Workday deployment.

When Scottish Water, one of the leading suppliers of water and wastewater services in the UK decided it wanted to transform its HR processes, it decided to take a step by step approach in a way that it didn’t disrupt the legacy of its systems or employee- and customer-engagement.

Scottish Water needed to fight with the disruptive COVID-19 pandemic, which had brought new restrictions into play and coerced the entire world to embrace

remote working. To resolve these issues, the organization decided to extend its partnership with Capgemini. The organizations had complimented each other as partners for over a decade, with Scottish Water providing industry expertise while Capgemini leveraging its history of digital transformation projects. Together, the partners explored Scottish Water’s expectations and goals and in order to standardize the organization’s HR processes while also delivering greater business agility.

Making HR processes digitized: This early phase of the review posed as a discovery stage intended to set up a plan for how to create and carry out the solution. Scottish Water and Capgemini set up a core plan guideline to arrange and leverage a solution using out-ofthe-case measures while ensuring agility in the ongoing adoption of new functionality.

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Water and Capgemini created a delivery team made up of experts from the two organizations to define a deployment plan for the solution.

The partners released new processes across all targeted business areas at the same time. To work with what might be a quick and unexpected change to the business’ processes, Scottish Water and Capgemini jointly set up a Change Management program that educated employees about the new work processes.

This leveraged digital tools and playbooks to accomodate COVID restrictions and support workers under lockdown conditions. As a result, the partners managed to roll out the accomplices figured out Workday and Cornerstone processes across a range of areas, including core HR and compensation, recruiting and onboarding, compensation, talent and performance, and costs.

Through their partnership, Scottish Water and Capgemini figured out how to adapt an approach to fit both the demands of the projects and the challenges of services under COVID-19. Typical HR processes for the future Once Workday and Cornerstone were both effectively carried out, Scottish Water had the option to understand its goals, most outstandingly giving a standardized and streamlined set of processes that improved efficiency and the speed of operations. This

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brought employees, workers and independent contractors under a common system that further empowered the workforce while also reducing costs and compliance risks.

By getting rid of manual process, the solution ensured that data quality and reporting were refined while mitigating any risks across all of Scottish Water’s systems. As a result, Workday now offers a more easy to use interface that has encouraged adoption and simplified it for employees to manage sensitive data. Through their collaboration, Scottish Water and Capgemini have beaten the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic to deliver HR solutions that bolster the organization’s efforts to become more digitally enabled while also improving day-to-day experience of its workers.

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HIRING THE BEST PEOPLE – YOU’VE GOT IT ALL WRONG! By: Diana Coker

Most companies make the mistake of instituting a hiring freeze in economic downturns. During the 2008 global financial crisis (GFC), BCG and the European Association for People Management surveyed 3,400 executives, including 90 senior human resources leaders in more than 30 countries, to see how they were responding. The most frequent action was to roll back on recruiting. At the same time, executives rated the selective hiring of highperforming talent from rivals as one of the three most effective responses to the previous crisis and the one with the best impact on employee commitment.

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Over the past three years, The HR Digest has conducted many interviews with current and former CHROs and people who work in the recruitment sector. Based on these interviews, we identified three changes that could substantially help organizations land the right talent. First, executives must make talent management a top priority – create and continuously refine their employee value proposition. Second, they must deploy a well-crafted employer branding strategy that’ll help influence the perceptions of job seekers. Third, they should diversify recruitment sources to hire from a wider pool of candidates, rather than the generic recruiting approach we generally stick to during crisis.

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In the world of recruiting, hiring teams face unique challenges.

Sourcing highly talented people can be quite tough. Star performers aren’t like doctors or engineers. They post portfolios instead of resumes. They’re in search for engagement to remain interested in what your organization has to offer. Are you equipped with the rights techniques and tools to address these issues?

We hear a lot of talk around the importance of strong employer brand, but you need to follow through in order to make the brand engaging and meaningful to today’s talent pool. Highly skilled people want to know what your company stands for – and more importantly, they want to know how real your efforts are. When they are seeking a job change, they want to find a genuine response from everyone involved in the hiring cycle.

Stories matter for your brand.

High-caliber candidates are highly sought after, so they’re looking for something that will set apart your company from rivals. Put employee testimonials on your social media channels, with highly engaging content that captures attention. Tell people what a day in the life of an employee is like, and how your workforce contributes to the betterment of the society on a broader level.

Also, keep your stories consistent and honest across all platforms – as smart candidate can see through the rose-tinted glasses.

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Casting a wide net.

According to a 2016 Job Seeker Nation study, 51% of employed individuals will switch jobs for a better opportunity even if they’re happy with where they are. This isn’t an optimistic statistic for recruiters.

You need to make a concerted effort to reach that percentage of high talent that’s not applying for jobs right now. As any recruiter can tell you, today’s skilled talent likes to move as swiftly as possible. As a matter of fact, the labor market is so competitive that you often need to point prospects with the right skill sets before you even have open applications.

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• Get on each recruiting channel. From social media sites to blog posts, you should be sharing relevant content about your company, your culture, your people, your mission and values, and your job opening with the world.

• Promote your company as a place where people want to be. Get on the platforms highly talented candidates use regularly, from Twitter to YouTube, and talk about what makes your company a “Great Place to Work for”.

• Peek into your past. One of the best sources of finding candidates is looking into your previous applicants’ pool —people who probably won’t have been hired the first time around, but who still possess the skills and knowledge required to do the job.

Need for speed.

It is important to get candidates through the hiring process as swiftly and efficiently as possible. You’ll often find yourself entangled in hiccups along the way that’ll occupy your time from taking timely action. This can slow hiring, alienate highly-skilled candidates, and disrupt the hiring manager’s relationships. A clear idea of where applicants go next will not only help weed out such hiccups but also make the entire process more effective.

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• Keep it real. Don’t wait to hire the “perfect” candidate for the job.

• Start by benchmarking your current hiring processes.

What are your typical hiccups? How many days/weeks does each phase generally take? Are you delivering a content employment brand experience?

A candidate’s journey goes beyond applying on your website.

A lot of candidates prefer to do research on the company before applying for a job. It’s important to understand to you are putting your best foot forward and inspiring a highly stellar workforce to join your company. A good way to start is by monitoring your Glassdoor reviews, social media channels, and more.

Employee referrals: The best source of hire.

If your hiring team is cash strapped, you already know how significant referrals can be! A referral is the easiest, fastest and cheapest way to hire good talent – and that’s critical in today’s market.

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• Communicate regularly with your employees. When there’s a significant news to share—a new job opening, an industry award you won, or general updates to the corporate values —share it via company-wide email or meetings. Make sure people are aware of what’s going on in your hiring process so people can help recruit on your behalf with good referrals.

There’s no reason the hiring team should be the only ones sharing a job opening on social media. Use social media platforms that allows employees to share the company’s social media posts—either immediately, or scheduled for a later time.

Feedback loops.

Provide an easy outlet for employees to tell you what they think of your existing referral programs. Ask for feedback on the current recruiting process. All things considered, every employee was once an applicant and new hire at one point, and their feedback is invaluable to improving your recruiting process.

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As per Jobvite’s 2015 Recruiter Nation Survey, 72% of recruiters acknowledge data analytics as an important tool in finding high quality candidates. “Landing a highly skilled candidate can sometimes feel like hunting for an elusive unicorn,” said Dan Finnigan, CEO of Jobvite. “So, as this year’s Recruiter Nation study points out, recruiters need to get creative and take a multipronged approach using social media, insights gleaned from analytics, and mobile tools, while engaging the entire organization to help find and hire top talent. That’s how winning companies will stay one step ahead in this competitive career landscape.

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BUILDING THE NEXT LEADERSHIP

pipeline with short-term executive programs in Top B-schools By: Anna Versai

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Seasoned executives in large corporations may have loads of experience in management, but there are many aspects of business that need to be honed constantly to make it to the top of the ladder.

A good way of doing that is through some executive business programs on offer in almost all major business management colleges. Considering the busy lifestyles of most of these executives, there are some short-term courses tailored and customized for their needs. Because these full-time managers have significant work experience and already understand the essentials of business, they often desire advanced business courses that delve into the intricacies of various management challenges.

Hence, many B schools offer executive MBA or EMBA programs designed for leaders like them.

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NEED FOR EXECUTIVE BUSINESS COURSES Executive business management programs tend to focus less on business basics and more on the nuances of business. The courses can be used to be more effective managers by leaders and by managers to be better leaders.

The average age of an executive in such programs is generally between 35 to 40, with about roughly 15 years of experience. The programs are often scheduled on weekends and weeknights. The coursework is done over longer sessions and compressed.

“These are programs that are designed so that working professionals can fit them into their lives, so you’re not going to go on campus during the day four or five days a week,” says Michael Desiderio, executive director of the Executive MBA Council (EMBAC). “There’s a myriad of formats: everything from meeting monthly for three immersive days to meeting biweekly for one or two days.”

Employees working for ten years or more have likely developed core skills in a specific discipline, and if they want to make the transition to the C-suite, they need to expand their knowledge. Therefore, one can choose programs that may offer concentrations or specializations that let students get a specific kind of EMBA, such as an EMBA in health care or hospital management.

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If students truly want to narrow their focus, other kinds of degrees could be more appealing. A finance expert who wants now to expand into marketing or customer dealings can choose from a myriad of short courses that deal in the same fields.

As people advance in their industry, they may need to develop leadership, finance, or accounting skills, which they can acquire through these EMBAs or short business courses.

Cost Factor The average cost of an EMBA, according to EMBAC’s 2019 Membership Program Survey, is $82,796. However, many business schools charge significantly more than the average rate. Sometimes the price of an EMBA exceeds $100,000 and occasionally at highly prestigious B-schools the course cost surpasses $200,000.

The executive business program generally are packed in 18 to 24 months duration. There are some short term ones which are geared specifically and are niche and can run for 3 to 6 months.

Though for these courses, most are fully or partially sponsored by their employers. However, the percentage of self-funded executives has gone up in recent years to almost 53 percent.

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The average EMBA grad received a 13.5% increase in compensation between the start and end of their executive MBA program, according to the 2019 EMBAC Student Exit Survey. And almost 40 percent manage to get a promotion after pursuing a course.

Curriculum and Colleges The core curriculum in these short-term courses and EMBA programs mirror the MBA course. The difference lies in the way the courses are imparted. There are more live sessions with real-life scenarios as the executives come with their own field experience; hence, the discussions are more intense and at a higher level. In addition, there are more interactions and guest lectures with industry leaders.

Associate Dean of Kellogg School of Management, Greg Hanifee, says their business school offers some courses that only EMBA students can take.

There are any array of courses available exclusively to Executive MBA students in Kellogg’s executive course, including 52 electives in 14 countries and across five continents.

They have a class on the causes of leadership successes and failures, catered to the executives who are on their way to the top and want to be prepared for the challenges ahead.

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A major advantage of these executive courses is that the lessons learned can be immediately applied in their everyday worklife.

The learners can see the differences (or not) they bring to their managerial and leadership styles.

Along with practical skills of management and accounting a special emphasis is given on courses on customer needs, marketing frameworks and Mergers & Acquisitions. Hence, they are better prepared to leverage a buyout that might be taking place in their current company.

Patrick Sweeney II, an entrepreneur who is on the board of the Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, says the primary difference between executive and traditional MBA programs is the cohort of students in the programs.

Executive MBA students are there to polish the skills they already have. For example, a new MBA is just laying the foundation of his managerial journey, whereas an executive comes to the program to polish a certain set of skills that will make him or her more equipped to handle their ambitions and the problems that their work throws out every day.

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Executives who have attended executive MBAs testify that the knowledge and network that they gain in such courses and programs have made a bigger, better and broader impact inside their organizations.

Here we bring you a list of executive MBA programs on offer by the major B schools.

Stanford Graduate School of Business believes in diversity and has a leadership lab where practical experience and course work is taught with eh help of leaders in the industry and alumni.

The London Business School’s Executive MBA focuses on knowledge and bringing about change in their organizations and influence the same everywhere. Their courses emphasize assessing and analyzing strengths and weaknesses to enhance selfawareness and flourish in their chosen fields.

London Business School was among the first

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to recognize that entrepreneurship wasn’t simply a natural talent one was born with but could be taught. INSEAD’s MBA program is high on flexibility and one of the main elements taught is leadership development.

They include organizational behavior courses with psychology, social psychology and sociology to explore leadership and managerial practice The Wharton Business School is known for its emphasis on the team model. The school is well-regarded for its role in pioneering ‘The Learning Team Model’ in MBA-level business. The idea is to teach to recreate a business team in which leadership skills are developed through working together, not simply with the bestowment of a title.

Harvard Business School is globally renowned for its case study method. The school publishes roughly 350 new cases each year, And for them leadership skills are the core of any program and stem from awareness and understanding.

One common thread that these schools emphasize in their learning programs is the investment they make in awareness and understanding – both of yourself and those with whom you interact on a daily basis.

They encourage this understanding through hands-on, experiential learning and opportunities to reflect back on strengths and weaknesses to gain new insights for the future.

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Courses help us adapt and change According to London Business School professors, Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott, today’s technological and medicinal advances mean that 50 percent of children born today are likely to cross a hundred.

That means people will have a longer working life. They will have to frequently reboot themselves to adapt to the changing technology and advancements that are bound to occur in their lifetime.

Executive MBA programs, refresher technological courses, mentoring and similar learnings are the way forward. Experts say it is time to now look beyond the tried and tested methods. The Pandemic has already shown us that we need to relearn the way we work.

Technology, behavioral sciences, communication and collaboration, are going to play a greater role in businesses. The traditional chain of command is bound to change and the leadership model that these courses cover needs to be changed.

Along with looking outwards for such skilling programs, employers need to look for more options for upskilling their senior staff.

E-learning has become more widely accepted. Also, in-house programs that are more organizational-centric can be tied to these learning platforms or B schools even to make them more accessible.

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There can be a mix of short-term executive education programs with long-term EMBA programs for more holistic training and to bring about transitional changes to individual careers.

The need now is not to fill skill gaps but to learn over a lifetime. The aim is to turn the learning programs and, through them, the executives into adaptable thinkers. The big change, then, when looking into the future of executive education, will be to its value proposition. The skills they learn, such as leadership, are a “huge value for executives looking for executives.”

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MICROTRAINING: THE BEGINNING OF A NEW ERA? By: Anna Versai

Just as schools are adopting a student-centered approach to teaching, so are corporates ensuring learning and development (L&D) is implemented in a way that helps people become more skilled in the future of work. The core of this shift from traditional to modern L&D learning is in understanding what the individual needs to flourish in their workplace. Rather than an umbrella course that teaches every individual the same skill–a skill that may not be important in their daily work routine, or may not be utilized to its full potential-the 21st-century L&D demands capabilities become the focus.

By helping workers understand the skills they need to perform, corporate trainers can develop and deliver training that guarantees

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long-term benefits rather than being reliant on a set learning model.

By zeroing in on capabilities and not simply skills, the gap between hypothetical and practical knowledge is covered, which means workers can recognize what capability they need to apply, when to apply it and how to apply it in a specific scenario. Learning this way also allows the training to be delivered in smaller sessions, which allows employees to develop the required skills and get back to their tasks sooner. This wipes out the time squandered in a whole meeting to develop a particular where many of the elements of that skill are not relevant to the learner’s job.

When we think about corporate training & development in the conventional sense, we understand it as ‘meeting based’ learning that involved an employee taking a particular course – either during work hours or outside of their work hours. While this more compartmentalized L&D method has its benefits, we’re also seeing the undneiable advantages of microtraining.

Microtraining allows the learner to catch things in real-time with their usual duties, so that the lessons can also be applied immediately to a project or task. This ‘learning in the progression of work’ requires an update of deep-rooted ideas regarding what L&D should entail.

For microtraining to be productive and not repress a worker’s ability to learn while at work, it should make the fundamental assets openly

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accessible and effectively available at whatever point they are required. Does this mean traditional L&D courses-such as monthly L&D sessions spanning anything from over a couple of days to several weeks- worth of in-person learning-are not essential? Not in the least. There will be a need for this kind of training. After all, this learning method is not the only option. Rapid and bitesized learning can happen as a short video or an infographic explaining how to execute a specific task.

What is microtraining? It could be a two-minute video; a simple training manual on an employee’s desk; a presentation of how to use a new platform. These are various approaches to prepare somebody without diverting them from the job that needs to be done.

There will most likely be cynics – L&D luddites who demand that corporate L&D can just happen in a conference room and with the presence of a trainer and other students. However, what they fail to acknowledge is that they are already experiencing microtraining in their everyday lives. The YouTube explainer video that assisted your graphic designer for a time-consuming task? That WikiHow article you read earlier this week? These are all training tools consolidated into our digitized lives.

Just as corporates shift to digital transformer, so too is L&D leveraging the power of technology. In fact, technology is making L&D easier

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to manage for all parties involved, and is reducing the time constraints often associated with corporate learning. Here are a few ways technology will play a vital role in the evolution of corporate L&D. Gamification isn’t a novel concept, yet rather than being a strategy deployed by millennial bosses, today everybody from government departments to Forbes 500 companies are acknowledging the benefits of gamifying L&D. According to a 2019 Gamification at Work study, workers at companies with gamification are more productive (89%) and more happier (88%) at work. Moreover, 83% of workers who receive gamified training are more motivated, while about 61% who get nongamified training say they are exhausted and inefficient.

The survey also revealed what types of training workers need to have gamified. Corporate compliance training was at the top at 30%, followed by training on products and services (18%) and technical skills development training (16%).

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whether it includes buying a gamified workplace platform stage from a dedicated supplier or just setting up a ‘leaderboard’ that tracks which workers have finished the most L&D modules, you don’t need to blow your entire year’s training budget to gamify training.

Globalization and the digitization on society may offer a range of benefits for the worker, however for corporates, it means tighter margins and tough competition. That means reducing expenses for

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survival. So how would you align your L&D strategy to the latest trends without making a significant financial investment? It pays to take a holistic view of the scenario.

Learning-whether face-to-face, virtual or hybrid-is an exceptional approach to retail start performers, reduce turnover and improve efficacy. And while it requires a significant amount of financial investment, the profits can make up for the expenditure. As per the Association for Talent Development (ADT), corporates with a strong L&D strategy enjoy 218% higher pay per employee than businesses with no training. They see a 24% higher profit margin than businesses that don’t invest enough on corporate training.

As we’ve seen from coronavirus lockdowns, virtual learning is an invaluable tool, and one that will become a standard in the years to come. When workers learn remotely, it also reduces associated costs and the potential disruptions of face-to-face L&D. You can ‘bank’ the learning content either on location or in the cloud and reuse them for future recruits. This in-house skill is another costsaver that is ideal for corporates hoping to lessen their L&D expense.

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HR Events & Conferences_July 2021

August 25-27, 2021

Columbus, OH

August 29 September 1, 2021

Kissimmee, FL

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Ohio HR Conference: Refresh & Refocus On behalf of the Ohio SHRM State Council and the Ohio HR Conference Committee - you are invited to Refresh and Refocus - the 2021 Ohio HR Conference.

We’ll be back in Columbus next year at the Greater Columbus Convention Center from August 25-27, 2021 for two and a half days of superior programming in a great (onsite!) venue.

HR Florida Conference & Expo 2021 The HR Florida Conference & Expo is the annual conference of the HR Florida State Council, a state affiliate of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). Each year, the event attracts 1,500+ human resource professionals and vendors throughout the state of Florida and across the nation. These individuals represent virtually every industry and companies ranging from small businesses to large industrial centers. Programs presented at the annual conference cover all aspects of the SHRM Body of Knowledge.

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September 13-16, 2021 Baltimore, MD

September 23-24, 2021

2020 IPMA- HR Annual Conference “IPMA-HR is your resource for comprehensive and timely HR industry news, jobs, policies, resources, education, and professional development opportunities.”

Scale HR 2020 Reimagining Possibilities: Tactics to Tackle the Top Megatrends in HR.

Atlanta, GA

September 29- October 1st, 2021

ATD 2021 International Conference & Exposition The ATD 2021 International Conference & Exposition will be unlike any other ATD conference.

Los Angeles, CA

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October 4-6th, 2021

World at Work 2021 Total Rewards Conference & Exhibition Come to reconnect with Total Rewards colleagues, thought leaders and solution providers and leave with new connections, insights and resources to tackle 2022 and beyond.

Phoenix, AZ

October 11 13th, 2021 for In-Person Conference, October 18 – 20th, 2021 for Virtual Conference

Dallas, TX or Virtual Event

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The HR Southwest Conference 2021 The HRSouthwest Conference powered by DallasHR, is one of the largest regional education and networking events for Human Resource professionals and those who supply products and services to the HR industry. Recognized as the official State of Texas SHRM Conference, the event celebrates its 80th Anniversary this year. Ready to learn in person and catch up with colleagues and friends? Join us inFort Worth October 11 – 13 for the In-Person HR Southwest Conference Earn 17 HRCI and SHRM recertification credits, meet with 50 exhibitors and sponsors, celebrate our 80th anniversary and visit Fort Worth’s restaurant scene. All with our commitment to safety.

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