HR professionals lead the charge to unravel human capital evolution
Profession adapts to the technological and societal changes in the business environment while keeping an eye on the bottom line
The human resources world isn’t generally seen as a hot bed of high-tech. But the ease of access to a wealth of data and the entrance of a tech-savvy breed of HR professionals may be changing all that. Demographic shifts and legislative changes in the management of human and leadership capital are also accelerating changes in a profession that senior executives are relying on more and more to guide them through an evolving business world.
Christian Codrington, a senior executive with the Human Resources Management Association (HRMA), states, “While psychometric testing has been used for decades, the “gamification” of this type of testing is one way in which technology is changing the landscape of business and the HR profession.”
Wasabi Waiter, an interactive video game, was developed by a Silicon Valley company to help companies pick the best people for job openings, according to Codrington – the association’s Director of Regulatory Affairs and Member Value.
“Shell Oil and other companies use the game to uncover a prospective employee’s creativity, persistence and real-time prioritizing of many small, simultaneous work decisions,” said Codrington, a 20-year HR veteran. “Games such as Wasabi Waiter offer employers deep, measurable insights into a prospective employee’s strengths and capabilities — in a way not typically done using paper and pencil tests.”
How to ensure the best‘fit’
Cost pressures and competition in the marketplace are pushing HR executives to make sophisticated decisions using very large data sets that can be objective, analyzed by computers to reveal patterns and trends in human behavior and interactions.
It allows companies to assess and manage an existing employee’s behaviour and how to ensure the best ‘fit’ for prospective employees.
Rather than guessing, employers are able to find correlations in turnover rates of new hires from different recruitment sources or academic institutions. Or determine which initiatives or employee benefits can help their teams best balance work and family stressors to be more productive.
Changes to WorkSafe’s regulations or Human Rights considerations, that attempt to strike a balance between a parent’s obligations to caring for their child with the demand of work, have had their profound effects on how HR professionals do their job, Codrington said.
Telecommuting, for instance, can be fraught with issues for the HR professional trying to advise senior management.
“You are working from home and you slip and fall. That could be a compensable Work Safe BC claim. Has the employer done an assessment of someone’s home before allowing the person to work from home? Is their workstation ergonomically correct (in the event) that they develop a repetitive strain injury? A senior executive at BlueShore
Financial says HR professionals continually prove their value to their companies by expressing it in the language of business — the bottom line.
“I think one of the transitions that HR professionals have gone through over the past number of years is translating the value of what they are doing into a return on investment as part of an overall company financial plan,” says Marni Johnson, Vice President of HR and Communications for 18 years at the North Vancouver-based credit union.
Executives like Johnson who have committed to the HR profession post-MBA (or other professional designations such as CPA or LLB), attain their Certified Human Resources Professional (CHRP) designation, says Codrington. The national designation is administered in BC and Yukon by HRMA.