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Tom Malone, professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management and author of the HBR article "The Age of Hyperspecialization," explains why breaking jobs into tiny pieces yields better, faster, cheaper work -- and greater flexibility for employees.

ROI on Training and Leadership programs Training evaluation usually takes into account the following factors. • Reaction-How the participants reacts to the program • Learning-Depending upon the nature of the program ways to measure the learning has to be worked out. • On Job behavior -To access the effective changes for the desired result on the team and the individual. • Business result-how the change in behavior has positively impacted business result. • Calculating the return on investment (ROI). Most of the organizations focus only till stage 4 of the evaluation process. Typically there are 3 aspects which are considered to be looked at under ROI. • Desired Impact - has the training program been effective it facilitating change as it was desired. Training is one of the many tools available; it must justify its effectiveness as a viable business solution to remain relevant and viable. • Cost –to substantiate that the cost incurred leads to positive impact of profitability. • Improv...

Recently my interview appeared in SCOOP an online HR magazine , it covers industry news , analysis and features the latest from the HR world. The interview covered wide ranges of issues ranging from HR strategies, processes and various other issues which organizations are grappling today. Here is the first part the interview. On Benchmarking in the field of HR. Benchmarking in today’s business environment has different context for different organizations.HR practices have also been keeping pace with ever dynamic business environment and every industry presents unique challenges for HR professionals. There are two important aspects which every HR team must try and benchmark against: Innovative HR Practices: HR practices needs continuous change and innovation, it is key to the competitiveness of any industry. HR teams have to lead in setting new trends in attracting and engaging talent. Today the best places to work are those which have Innovative and engaging HR practices. If you are l...

A major complaint among HR professionals these days is a severe lack of time. This is a common concern across the professional landscape and something that we all combat every day. You probably find yourself hoping for more hours to get more done. This isn’t going to happen but there are ways you can make more productive use of your time to make sure that your “to-do” lists are completed by the day’s end. Here are five ways you can create this needed time: 1. Switch your hours. If the 9-5 shift isn’t providing you enough time to get everything done that you need to then consider working longer. Wake up an hour earlier and get to work that much earlier. The earlier you get to work the less interruptions you’ll encounter. While your free time will be cut into you’ll feel more satisfied that you got more done. 2. Multitask. This is the catchword of the day and it’s here to stay. If you’re trying to further your career then listen to audio textbooks while in the car. Waiting for a doctor...

Prioritizing key activities and focusing on strategic areas of concern continues to be a challenge for majority of HR professionals. Most of the studies which focus on challenges faced by HR professional continues to highlight the ever increasing pressure of attracting, engaging in retaining talent. In a recent study by i4cp when respondents were asked about the main barriers facing HR in 2008, 44% of the 355 responding companies rated lack of time as having a high or very high impact on HR’s ability to achieve its goals. “HR professionals are singing a familiar refrain,” said Donna J. Bear, senior research analyst at i4cp. “They’re citing not enough time, talent or money and too many conflicting priorities as top impediments to accomplishing their employers’ goals.” Besides not having enough time, nearly four in 10 respondents cited “conflicting organizational priorities, ” “scarcity of workforce talent” and “financial resources” as having a high or very high impact on achieving thei...

Where should HR focus more - on internal customers, business partners or external vendors .It’s a catch -22 situation which many HR teams are unable to crack, some just can’t figure out the areas the top areas of priority. They continue to be driven by change, rather than playing the change agent role. Dave Ulrich has called on HR to be more in tune with business issues to deliver real value. Speaking at a Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) annual international conference based in Rome, Ulrich told more than 400 HR practitioners to focus on outcomes - ie, what they deliver for their organisation and key customers, rather than what they do inside. He urged HR to have an opinion on external changes in technology, economic trends and demographics, and to understand their chief executive's expectations of the business. "The challenge in HR is not what we do, but what we deliver how we add value," he said. "For decades we have been too focused on what we do. The world of HR ...

Veritude came out with a survey titled “ Working together, Working apart ”which looked at business and HR leaders working relationship and common understanding of each other issues. Overall, the research reveals that in many companies, HR must improve their business leaders' perceptions of theirs skills and abilities and business leaders must learn to turn to HR for support in addressing workforce issues. There is ample room for optimism that both business and HR leaders in this study recognize these trends are working toward effective plans. 1.Strategic Business Challenges: Both business and HR leaders agree that talent acquisition and recruitment top the list of strategic business issues, but one in five business and HR leaders see HR as only involved in "implementing " strategy, not participating in plan development. What's more, a common perception is that HR is lacking adequate financial aptitude and therefore is not asked to contribute to strategy development be...

" It" is talent, which is evolving into a science for some HR professionals and a passion for many line managers. A multitude of programs and investments have been made to attract, retain and upgrade talent. HR guru Dave ulrich gives his 3C mantra of competence,committed and contribution on the talent cafeteria . In this talent equation, these three terms are multiplicative, not additive. If any one is missing, the other two will not replace it. A low score in competence will not ensure talent even when the employee is engaged and contributing. Talented employees must have skills, wills and purposes; they must be capable, committed and contributing. HR leaders can engage their general managers to identify and improve each of these three dimensions to respond to the talent clarion call. Just indicates how HR functions in the organisation plays the most critical role of revisiting and reviewing the competencies and talent required to perform in organisations.HR role need not ...

This Business week article made me think how challenging and diverse can be the job of a Human resource professional. Apart from conveying really bad news—a workforce reduction or a painful reorganization—there are a few other less-than-sensational aspects of an HR career, depending on your temperament and the companies you work for. Lots of HR people I know, for instance, complain about the constant cost-cutting that turns them into the bad guys who must inform employees on a regular basis of reductions in everything from travel allowances to flavors of tea in the break room. Other HR people wish that the role they play could be more instrumental in making the company a great place to work and less focused on policy and documentation. Still other HR folks spend more time than they'd like protecting the company from employee-relations lawsuits and wage-and-hour claims. The attention which HR gets, challenges it faces and kind of impact which HR actions have on the employees in the...

A century's worth of MBAs would seem sufficient to propagate a by-the-numbers approach into every nook and cranny of the business world, but it hasn't worked out that way. By most accounts, companies have done a respectable job of mastering financial metrics, but have largely taken a flier on measurements of operations or intangibles such as customer satisfaction or brand loyalty. Fifteen years ago the advent of the "balanced scorecard" sought to redress this imbalance by demonstrating how nonfinancial metrics could be captured and used to help managers "see their company more clearly — from many perspectives — and make wiser long-term decisions," according to its creators, Robert Kaplan and David Norton. But despite the popularity of that approach at a strategic level, many consultants and academics say it left thorny questions unaddressed at more tactical levels. Use of HR metrics for measuring the impact and efficacy of practices and policies seems to be ...

I'm sure some of us have seen or heard it before in our profession. Makes me wonder how many of us come forward and take ownership of our actions. Accept failures when things go wrong. Come forward and say yes this is my idea and I have a plan to achieve this result and have this target in mind for this action plan. One can't expect HR to be a leading indicator unless we have leadership which is driven by metrics and linked to bottom line results of the organization. I’m sure we need more HR leaders who lead by end results rather than mere thoughts. In case if you are doing this then you need to share your experiences and train the rest of the HR folks around. I’m sure we can do better as a professional community by sharing our learning and experiences on this account and raise the levels of HR benchmarking and best practices.

“The definition of HR transformation has evolved out of a number of perceived and real pressures on the HR function. The function is expected to support the business, provide the right direction for the people management strategy and then execute the strategy. It also has to demonstrate an improvement in value, yet at the same time carry out cost-heavy administration. In response to these challenges, the transformation process that many companies have embarked on involves examining the HR strategy and how it supports the business strategy, and then changing the HR operating model to achieve optimum delivery.” According to the 2006 Global HR Transformation Study by Mercer Human Resource Consulting, half (50%) of organizations are in the midst of transforming their HR functions, while 12% completed a transformation within the past year and another 10% plan to begin the process within the next year. HR transformation is the process of recreating or reinventing the HR function with the spe...

HR competencies and its impact on the role performed by HR has been evolving at a very fast pace, the fast pace of business growth has meant that HR function also reinvents and moves from basis transaction oriented role to more meaty and result driven function having tangible impact on business results and facilitating organization growth and talent development . SHRM article talks about Dave Ulrich, and his associates who have been on a quest to provide the answer to the competencies required for HR professionals. This year, they’ve released an all-new 2007 Human Resource Competency Study (HRCS). The findings and interpretations lay out professional guidance for HR for at least the next few years. The study outlines six future competencies for HR professionals in the days to come. The six competencies and the elements that make them up offer the outlines of what it takes to be successful. The Credible Activist is respected, admired, listened to and offers a point of view, takes a p...