Author: LabourGenie.net

In the industrial space, employee relations comprise three critical components which are inextricably linked: employee value propositions, employee wellness, and employee relations. To succeed in the fast-paced economies of today, organisations must employ advanced systems and develop innovative analytics capabilities to ensure these areas flourish.

According to René Schoeman, Human Capital Specialist Consultant at LabourGenie.Net, technology is the crucial link required to bridge the gap between Human Capital Management (HCM) and employee relations. Interestingly, Schoeman believes that it is unnecessary to reinvent the wheel. Systems and platforms already exist, offering organisations excellent analytics capabilities and robust HCM and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions. The real requirement now is to implement and use these existing systems effectively.

“Too often these systems become a place where data is dumped, personal information is used, and the business gains no benefit. Instead, organisations should implement a combination of purpose-built solutions, like the orgvue analytics platform, UKG’s Work Force Management and Human Relations solutions, and a highly effective ERP system – and then drive adoption throughout the entire organisation. With this approach, the entire employee relations trifecta will improve,” she adds.

There are two challenges to this level of adoption. Small to medium business often do not (or cannot) invest in holistic Human Relations (HR) or HCM solutions, opting instead for a small investment in a simple payroll solution. While large organisations make the investment in full HCM and ERP, they often do not use these solutions optimally.

“To experience the full value proposition of these systems, businesses must ask ‘what does this actually say; where is the data leading me?’ Whether large or small, we must bridge the gap between implemented systems, and using them effectively to discover what makes employees tick,” says Schoeman.

True employee relations require knowing who the employees are, how they work, and in which environments they work best. Which employee is better suited for a home office, and which need to be in a traditional workspace? Are the employees suited to the roles they’ve been put in? Are there skills gaps that need to be filled? To answer these questions, organisations must look at data far more critically, developing a deep understanding of the employee, and then matching that with the workforce and landscape. “The information is there. It’s already available in these systems. If they’re used optimally, these insights have the potential of impacting the business in a powerfully positive way.”

From an Operational Process Assessment (OPA), Organisational Processing and Engineering perspective, Schoeman adds that companies often rely on outdated processes and organisational design. This prevents the organisation from moving forward in it markets and remaining relevant. Thankfully, modern solutions like orgvue help organisations redesign their processes without expensive trial and error.

“With advanced scenario planning businesses can investigate, redesign, and analyse their processes without any disruption to the business. With this approach, businesses can access a holistic view of the knock-on effect of a process adjustment before making the change. This saves time, creates certainty, and prevents unnecessary time or resource wastage,” confirms Schoeman.

From an industrial relations perspective, this level of insight is also highly beneficial when working with unions. In a highly unionised landscape, tensions can run high and trust is often difficult to establish. However, with real time access to scenario planning solutions, union representatives are better able to visualise and understand business impacts, with face-value facts that drive transparency in reorganisation processes. With orgvue analytics, nothing is hidden. This tends to build trust and allow for amenable negotiations.

“Gone are the days when HCM centred around admin. Doing a head count, skills report, equity report… HR should go much deeper. Today, HR leaders need to reinvent their thinking. The goal should be to understand people better to unlock their true value,” concludes Schoeman.

In a rapidly moving landscape, organisations that manage continuous change stand the best chance for growth and success. The key is to prepare today’s workforce for tomorrow. There’s no denying that the pace of change is constantly increasing. To keep up, organisations must be proactive and strategic in their approach to ensure less disruptive transformation (but transformation nonetheless).

According to Tony Cohn, Business Development Manager at orgvue, “Business transformation is a universal and pervasive challenge with a chequered history. Globally, almost 8 in every 10 transformation projects fail. Most of these are digital transformation projects, amounting to $900 billion in wasted investment every year. The priority should be to move to on-going monitoring of the organisational operating model’s health, converting strategic workforce planning to operational workforce planning.”

To achieve a progressive operating model, Cohn believes three key elements should be considered. The first is to continuously monitor the health of the organisation. The second is to build a sustainable organisational planning and analysis (OP&A) capability. The third is to reduce the need for painful, demoralising large-scale transformations. “The goal is to move from event-based, reactive transformation to ongoing monitoring and adjustments,” he adds. “This approach leads to smaller, more frequent, less disruptive, and internally driven change. It is palatable yet powerful, and usually yields more sustainably positive results.”

When attempting to meet constant disruption, the best approach is constant design. To design for disruption, the organisation must develop an understanding of the constant, fluctuating change in both the macro- and micro-environments, and how these changes affects the organisation. “From big moments that affect the business, but are outside of its control, to mergers and acquisitions, and other major disruption events, defining a strategic response to change and its impact on the workforce is the best way to manage disruption,” believes René Schoeman, Human Capital Specialist Consultant at LabourGenie.Net.

Today, because of the Covid-19 pandemic, organisations are dealing with more silos than ever before. Enforced remote working and innovation means communication and engagement are suffering, and many business leaders are at a loss for what can be done about this. Cohn confirms that the business must understand the workforce in detail, relying on the latest technologies to track organisational workflow – and then separating those activities that can be performed remotely from those that are better done in-person.

“The idea is to harness more data to view the workforce through different lenses, to model how redesigning roles or restructuring business units would affect costs and outcomes – all before committing to any changes,” he adds. “This insight empowers proactive planning based on real-time information, and ensuring people are in the right place at the right time to deliver the right work.”

Fewer distractions, less commuting, and a smaller amount of sick days taken means productivity actually increased during the global Coronavirus lockdowns. Resultantly, it is reasonable to expect that most industries will not return to traditional office working. Yet the requirements for innovation and collaboration should not be put aside to make room for working from home. Instead, organisations should think holistically about the workforce, enabling people to collaborate effectively in a hybrid work environment.

“It is planning that will allow people to come together in a new era of work,” confirms Schoeman. “This requires understanding where and what work needs to be done and how to upskill people to perform at their best, while allowing leaders to assess current organisational capability to meet business needs.”

Covid-19 may have accelerated the pace of digitisation – but with or without the pandemic, it was already a likely eventuality. Essentially, businesses are planning for a future that’s already here. “Ultimately, the onus is on business leaders to decide on a new way of working and to do so quickly. Those who don’t fully understand their organisational data won’t be able to grasp their future with confidence. In this climate, the organisations that succeed will be those which are already looking at their workforce and operations through different lenses, determining which options offer the best advantage for their business and their people; all while making decisions based on genuine insight, driven by innovative technologies,” concludes Cohn.