As it's January I thought I'd kick off this first round up of links to resources on HR strategy with a look at what HR leaders see in their crystal balls for 2012. Should we assume austerity is the new normal or will the London Olympics bounce come to the rescue of the UK economy?
The CIPD's forecast is less downbeat than some but warns that people management faces major challenges this year. It says:
"The combination of job shortage for people without work, mounting job insecurity and a further fall in real earnings for those in work may test the resilience and resolve of the UK workforce far more than it did in the recession, possibly fostering a tetchy 'passive-aggressive' mood in many workplaces that could prove hard to manage."
Other CIPD predictions are:
- Slower economic growth in 2012 than in 2011.
- A continued but less severe real pay squeeze.
- Fewer people in work and uemployment rising above 2.85 million. A mild rather than major jobs recession with public sector employment to fall at an average rate of 30,000 per quarter and not offset by private sector job creation, resulting in a net annual reduction in employment of 120,000. Private sector mployment faces a slow, painful contraction in overall employment in 2012.
- Labour-hoarding in the private sector and a continuation of the 'productivity pause' that has characterised the UK economy during and since the recession of 2008-9.
- Government measures targeted at young people and long-term welfare recipients to have only limited effect.
Michael Carty in XpertHR's Employment Intelligence blog, rounded up the views of four leading UK bloggers.Kevin J Ball, author of the People Matters blog, predicts:
"For HR, I'm afraid it's more of the same for 2012. Siege budgets and the Board stockpiling cash will make it really tough to do the development work most of us love."
Steven Toft, director at Crucible Consulting, and a contributor to the Guardian and the Evening Standard concludes:
"The outlook, then, is for an aging, low growth economy, carrying levels of debt which would have been unthinkable only three years ago. Martin Sorrell's quip about a 'bath shaped recession' was prescient. A sharp fall, followed by a long period of stagnation, the bath's corrugated bottom representing a series of small peaks and troughs, before the gradual recovery kicks in... Austerity will be the new normal for some time to come."
Another survey, "Economic Conditions Snapshot, December 2011: McKinsey Global Survey", finds that executives' views about the global economy and their companies' prospects in most regions are more positive than in September, though they are still gloomier than in June.
John Ingham, writing in his Strategic HCM blog, looks at The 2011 Chief HR Officer Challenge, by the Cornell Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies and draws his own conclusions.
Ingham looks at how the challenges facing HR chiefs in Europe and the US differ:
[The challenges] "are mainly about people - HR competencies (Europe 97%, US 58%), HR resources (25 / 34%) and organisational talent (19 / 25%), as well as in Europe, HR processes (29 / 5%), HR technology (25 / 10%) and line support (25 / 6%). Not regulatory / legal constraints - which are actually higher in the US! (6 / 13%)."
Ingham adds that obstacles include the lack of directors promoted from within the HR function and lack of strategic development opportunities available, particularly in Europe.
Read on for news and comment on new management books, events and topics including employee engagement, leadership, HCM, HR metrics and analytics, performance management and change management.
Employee engagement
Improving A Leading Indicator of Financial Performance: Employee Engagement by Ty Kiisel on Forbes.
12 Daily Employee Engagement Prescriptions for 2012 by David Zinger on his Employee Engagement Blog.
Data Metrics and analytics
HR is a-buzz with analytics, says Brenda Kowske on the Bersin & Associates blog, but data need to be collected, pulled from their source, analyzed, interpreted and reported in a way that the audience can make use of it.
What is the ideal employee to HR ratio in 2012?, asks the XpertHR Employment Intelligence blog.
What can you do with employee survey data? Cathy Missildine Martin offers examples of good practice on her Profitability through Human Capital blog.
Performance management
The Performance and Potential Matrix (9 Box Grid) - an Update, on the Great Leadership blog.
The Performance Improvement Myth, by William Powell on the Leadership Advisor blog.
Leadership
Leadership Interview: Dr. John Kotter on Creating Organization Change r. Kotter is chief innovation officer at Kotter International, which works with organizations looking to undertake major change at a rapid pace. He's also Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership, Emeritus at Harvard Business School. Interviewed by Sharlyn Lauby
How leaders kill meaning at work. Senior executives routinely undermine creativity, productivity, and commitment by damaging the inner work lives of their employees in four avoidable ways. By Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer.
5 leadership development tenets that boost employee satisfaction. Employee engagement continues to sag in many organizations. But not at Genentech says Leigh Steere on Ragan's HR Communication blog.
7 Sure Fire Ways to Fail as an HR Leader on the Tim Sackett Project blog.
Developing tomorrow's leaders, by Chris Welford on Personnel Today. Chris Welford is director of Serco Consulting.
Talent management
How do companies identify high potential employees? It's about learning agility, says Abhijit Bhaduri on his blog.
Change management
IBM Focuses HR on Change. Brad Power, a consultant and researcher in process innovation, explains how on the Harvard Business Review blog.
The Art of Managing Change Revealed, by Robin Hall on the Inspirational HR blog.
HR Information Systems
What is in store for HR Technology in 2012? Predictions from the HR Futurist blog.
Corporate Responsibility
In an article in HR Magazine Alexandra Stubbings, faculty member and OD consultant at Ashridge Business School, discusses recent research at Ashridge on sustainability and change.
What really drives value in CSR? Three experts discuss this on the McKinsey Quarterly: CB Bhattacharya , E.ON chair in corporate responsibility and dean of international relations at the European School of Management and Technology (ESMT), in Berlin; and Daniel Korschun assistant professor at Drexel University's LeBow College of Business; and Sankar Sen, a professor of marketing at Baruch College's Zicklin School of Business.
Why CSR's future matters to your company, by Susan McPherson, senior vice president at Fenton. On the HBR Blog Network
And news about two forthcoming events on different sides of the world on HR and CSR.
HR and management books
Western managers must take account of local attitudes or they will struggle to be an effective leader, writes Carly Chynoweth in The Sunday Times, discussing the recent publication of the the book, Chinese Leadership, by Barbara Xiaoyu Wang and Harold Chee of Ashridge Business School. Published by Palgrave.
Some Great Books from 2011, picked by the HR School blog. Topics include social business, business strategy and leadership. Best Business Books of 2011on the Tim Sanders blog.
An article on a new management book "The Enemy of Engagement - Two leadership strategies for driving engagement". By Mark Royal and Tom Agnew.
Events
Well-being for High Performance Conference & Workshop 23-24 February, London, organised by the CIPD.
The BITC Responsible Business Convention, 14-15 March, London.
Pan European HR Forum 10-11 May, Brussels, Belgium.
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Comments (1)
Noel -
Thanks for including my pp matrix post on your resource list.I wish you and your readers all the best in 2012!
Dan
Posted by Dan McCarthy | January 28, 2012 7:15 PM
Posted on January 28, 2012 19:15