PHR history - Professional in Human Resources (HRCI PHR) Updated: 2023

Tara Duggan is a Project Management Professional (PMP) specializing in knowledge management and instructional design. For over 25 years she has developed quality training materials for a variety of products and services supporting such companies as Digital Equipment Corporation, Compaq and HP. Her freelance work is published on various websites.

The story is simple and has repeated itself. Just as a cottage industry of online recruitment, learning, and performance management vendors disrupted incumbents in the early 2000s (prompting pushing SAP to pay $3.4 billion for SuccessFactors, Oracle to pay $1.9 billion for Taleo, and IBM to pay more than $1.1 billion for Kenexa), a new set of disruptors are doing it again.

The History: From Talent Management Tools To Integrated Talent Management

First let's look at some history. In the early 2000s, when organizations were using installed HR systems, a cadre of innovative software companies (names like Authoria, Docent, Saba, Softscape, SuccessFactors, and others) built enterprise-class tools to automate talent practices. These systems fell into the categories of applicant tracking systems (ATS), performance management systems (PM) and learning management systems (LMS). Note the use of the word “management” – these tools were focused on automating and managing an enterprise-wide talent processes.

In those days companies typically installed “core HR" systems (e.g. PeopleSoft, SAP, others) and they often ran payroll in house. These HR systems were highly customized, complex, difficult to use, and expensive to maintain. Most were built around client/server architectures, and often came from mainframe heritage.

In the late 1990s as the "war for talent" increased, companies started to snatch up these new talent management systems, focused on automating the processes of recruiting, performance appraisal, and online learning. The talent management market quickly grew, reaching over $2 billion by 2007, and we saw growth rates of double digits year after year.

This was an exciting and innovative period for buyers and investors. Vendors like Authoria, CornerstoneOnDemand, GeoLearning, Learn.com, Softscape, SumTotal, SuccessFactors, Taleo and many others were all growing. As the markets of performance, learning, and recruitment emerged, buyers started to realize that they wanted these standalone systems to fit together. This shifted the market from that of “automated talent management to “integrated talent management suites.”

The idea of “integrated talent management” was everywhere. Companies appointed heads of talent management and senior HR and business leaders started practicing books on the Topic (there are now hundreds of books and courses on corporate talent management). I remember early conversations with HR departments and they said "I thought talent management was for Hollywood." It went mainstream.

To help people understand all the software tools Bersin & Associates worked with Bill Kutik to design "shootouts" of these suites at the HR Technology Conference to help people understand what it might be like for performance management, development planning, and other practices to work together. Vendor vision turned into customer demand, and suddenly every HR vendor needed to build a talent management solution.

As vendors grew, the marketplace consolidated (as it always does). SuccessFactors, the pioneer in performance management, built out its recruiting product and later acquired Plateau (a leading LMS provider). Taleo, the pioneer in recruiting, built its performance management product and later acquired Learn.com. ADP acquired Workscape; Ceridian acquired Dayforce; SumTotal acquired GeoLearning, Pathlore, and Softscape; and Kenexa acquired a series of small providers, later to be acquired by IBM. Every HR software company was either buying another vendor or positioning themselves to be sold.

Through strong sales, marketing, and product leadership a few companies became market leaders: SuccessFactors in performance management; Taleo in recruiting; and CornerstoneOnDemand, Saba and SumTotal in learning.

I credit SuccessFactors as the pioneer of this market at the time. This aggressive company popularized the idea of online performance management and heavily pushed the idea of top-down business-aligned goals. (They called their suite "business execution software," conjuring up Jack Welch from GE as a spokesperson). Today, of course, this concept is being totally reinvented, but at that time these concepts were everywhere.

The Shift To Cloud And Core HR

As these vendors grew and the category of integrated talent management became established, cloud computing entered the scene (initially called "on-demand" software). Leveraging this trend, the talent management vendors pointed out that their products were easier to implement than traditional HR software. So they started to compete with core HR providers like Oracle/PeopleSoft, SAP, and ADP. In fact, most big companies buying an integrated talent suite started to ask “why don’t I have all my systems in the cloud, including core HR and payroll?”

 (For those of you not familiar with HR systems, core HRMS and payroll software is dauntingly complex because it has to store all the detailed data about employees, their pay and benefits, compensation history, job history and other essential information. Companies like PeopleSoft, SAP, ADP, and later Workday have invested millions of lines of code in this “system of record” software category.)

Through a bold move by SuccessFactors, this all started to change. SuccessFactors introduced a product called Employee Central, a cloud HR database designed to replace a company's core HRMS. This product, which was little more than an employee directory in its early days, showed buyers they could now buy all their HR software from a talent management company. This move awakened SAP and Oracle (which now owned PeopleSoft), and later helped pave the way for Workday (which was well along with their product plans) to enter the market. (Cornerstone Link, which was just announced this spring, is a similar move in this direction.)

Over the ensuing four to five years the HR software market shifted, and categories of core HR and talent management software collapsed.  SAP acquired SuccessFactors and stated its intention to build out an end-to-end cloud-based HRMS, payroll, and talent management suite. Oracle acquired Taleo and SelectMinds, aggressively redesigned PeopleSoft for the cloud, and introduced Oracle HCM. IBM acquired Kenexa (which owned a highly-scalable applicant tracking systems). ADP acquired Workscape; Skillsoft acquired SumTotal (which had previously acquired Softscape, Cybershift, GeoLearning, and MindSolve). And Workday built out its end-to-end solution, expanding its customer base around the world.

HR In The Cloud: A Transformed Market

While these software companies were combining, cloud computing was becoming well established. Initially companies were nervous about putting their HR data into the hands of vendors, so they resisted the idea.  But over the next few years, as Workday (“built for the cloud”), Oracle, SAP (SuccessFactors), ADP (always was a cloud company), IBM, and others came to market, buyers realized that cloud was the future.

This led to a rapid period of consolidation (from 2011 to today) where buyers started to replace much of their installed HR software with one or more of these integrated cloud systems. Since most of the ERP vendors now offered talent management as well as core HR and payroll, nearly every buyer decided to select an ERP vendor for their core. And newer HRMS and payroll vendors like Ultimate Software, Ceridian, Namely, Zenefits, Infor, Sage and others came to market and went after other market segments.

(Chapter four of the 2014 Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends was entitled “Race to the Cloud,” describing how rapidly companies have been replacing standalone HR software with integrated cloud platforms.)

Today: Cloud HR Suites Predominate, But None Are Perfect

While it now looks possible to buy everything from one vendor, none have every talent management feature with the same level of maturity. And the concepts and practices of talent management keep changing, so these bigger software vendors have had their hands full keeping up with all the features customers want.

(Oracle, for example, continues to revamp their LMS strategy; Workday’s recruitment product is still relatively new and they have yet to launch their LMS; SuccessFactors’s original performance management product is challenged by competitors as well.)

What about the dozens of standalone talent management vendors? Those that were not acquired (Cornerstone, SumTotal, Saba, PeopleFluent, and many others) continue to sell specialized systems, but their market has become smaller. They now typically sell to smaller companies and focus on coexistence with ERP providers, hoping they can stay ahead.

Well, all this is starting to change. A new breed of HR software vendors has arrived - a generation of what I would call "people management systems."

Innovation Arrives: Next Gen Performance Management, Team Collaboration, Feedback, Video, Goal Alignment, Wellness And More

A new cycle of innovation is here.

While cloud-based HR system consolidation was taking place, businesses tell us they have a new set of problems: employee engagement, driving a high performance culture, creating more feedback and development, and designing a more agile, team-centric organization structure.

As I discuss in “The End of Talent Management, while integrated HR systems are a generally good thing (particularly for analytics), companies no longer see “integration” as their biggest business problem. Today our research shows that companies tend to be focused on issues like revamping performance management, building a more agile organization around teams, improving the capabilities of leadership, improving engagement and retention, and creating an employee-centric learning environment. They want to simplify and Strengthen the employee experience, extend their recruitment products onto the social internet, and make HR software much more focused on employee needs.

And there are a number of emerging important HR applications as well: a need to teach the organization how to build and manage teams, facilitate wellness and fitness at work, and provide always-on feedback and pulse engagement surveys. Almost none of these features were even imagined in the “integrated talent management” tools designed in the early part of the last decade.

Added to this is the fact that today we don’t really use the “web” like we used to. Today people interact with technology through a growing generation of mobile apps. These apps, unlike cloud-based browser applications, can take advantage of location, sounds, and a wide range of new sensors (many of which we will be wearing), making the HR applications of only a few years ago seem old-fashioned and uninteresting. We call this new world of apps, driven by gamification and design thinking, “Digital HR.”

One of our clients, for example, developed a new mobile workforce management application that automatically clocks an employee into a retail location when they walk into a store. Another has developed an onboarding app that continues for the employees’ first 9 months on the job, providing video learning, people to meet, activities to complete, and fun games to participate in throughout their development process.

To be blunt, one could argue that much of the focus on “integrated talent management” over the last 15 years was focused on making HR tools easier for HR people to use, not more useful to employees. Today we want HR technology that delivers a great employee experience and makes our work-life more productive and interesting. We want our HR tools to feel more like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube and less like training and performance administration.

One of the Digital HR apps at Deloitte is called “spaces,” which lets a consultant find a desk or office in any city in the world, find our peers who are located in the same location, and communicate with peers – all through a mobile phone.

This shift from “cloud” to “mobile” is disruptive. Just as vendors struggled (and some failed) to move from licensed software to cloud architectures, so will we see a new breed of mobile apps disrupt many incumbents again. An “all-mobile” HR platform is now possible, and this kind of solution will likely be very different. Video will be embedded in real-time, the apps will use gamification (points, authority credits, challenges), analytics will be embedded through recommendations and suggestions, and the application will behave differently based on our location and even heartbeat. (I do believe wearables will enter the HR domain quickly, and companies like FitBit, VirginPulse and Limeaid are making this happen today.)

One of our clients recently built an “all-mobile” HR platform which includes vacation planning, employee directory, time tracking, expense management, and virtually everything else their core HR system does. This app is so compelling that more than 20,000 employees downloaded it the first week, making it the most successful HR application the company has ever built.

The look of these apps has radically changed as well, forcing incumbent vendors to rethink their systems. In the old world of applications we had menus, drop downs, tables, panels, and dashboards to help us manage people practices. Today we build apps that let us swipe, pinch, scan, and scroll. Most provide an “activity stream” to show us what other people are doing, they embed video everywhere, and they are graphically stunning and visually exciting.

The mobile experience is slowly “eating” the browser experience: more than 40% of job candidates try to apply through their phones, and more than 60% of all online video is now consumed on mobile devices (Kleiner Perkins Internet Trends). The next generation of corporate learning systems, for example, could look more like BuzzFeed and YouTube and less like a course catalog.)

Think also about the potential for sensors. Our phone knows where we are, how many steps we took, and soon even our voice, heartbeat, and how we feel. (Lots of sleep aid apps now listen to your breathing, for example, and coach you on new positions and techniques to help you sleep).

We recently wrote about the potential for sociometric badges in the article “IoT meets the Quantified Employee.” You can use information about employee tone of voice and motion to understand what causes stress at work, creating a “mood meter” to help you rearrange the office, make meetings better, and identify leadership behaviors that Strengthen engagement. Imagine an employee application that coaches you on management and leadership style, helps you stay relaxed and fit at work, and rates meetings based on their usefulness. All these ideas are now possible.

As this shift accelerates, we can expect incumbent HR vendors to adapt. Oracle, SAP, Workday, ADP, Ceridian, Infor, Ultimate Software, Cornerstone, and most other vendors are now laser focused on mobile versions of their platforms (Workday and SAP now build on mobile first). But are they really designing software that's different? In many cases, no. In most cases (with some exceptions) they are mobile implementations of the web-based systems they spent hundreds of millions of dollars building. So there is lots of room for innovation.

This, of course, has opened the door for disruptive startups. Today there are hundreds of small vendors building new tools to make work better (most are led by technologists who never worked in HR). Many start with a new idea (ie. Team goal management), and then realize that there is a huge domain of HR experience they need to tap into. They are fresh creative thinkers and they are bringing amazing innovation into the marketplace.

Consider the world of recruiting, for example. Many of us who have been in this market for years thought the applicant tracking systems (ATS) market was kind of "done." Well companies like Greenhouse, Lever, SmartRecruiters, and dozens of others are now reinventing the space from scratch – leveraging integrated social tools, video interview technology, and new tools for referral marketing and analytics to reinvent recruitment platforms. Similar vendors are focused on performance and goal management, learning and skills management, social rewards and recognition, and wellness.

So just as the talent management vendors disrupted the ERP vendors in the early 2000s, and were later combined into larger companies, the same thing is happening again - this time led by mobile-first, young new companies that focus on technologies like feedback, video, integrated analytics, and gaming.

What's Really New About These Apps?

As I've had the opportunity to watch this new market grow, I've noticed a clear set of new capabilities these apps typically bring to market.

• Feedback is embedded. Every interaction with these apps lets you provide feedback, comments, or suggestions to others. So as management tools, they create a tremendous flow of comments, suggestions, insights, and feedback between people. This data is used for coaching, assessment, skills development, and of course performance management. One of these startups, Zugata, specifically uses feedback for competency management and development purposes.

• They rely on feeds, not panels. In the web-based HR applications we had lots of tabbed panels to find things. These apps built on the user design of Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. They use vertical feeds to offer vast amounts of real time information to users. This helps make using them dynamic and interesting.

• They use video extensively. All the new learning solutions (including Workday's new LMS, Oracle's new LMS, and the new capabilities in SuccessFactors and SumTotal) assume that video-based learning is the "primary media." New tools like Grovo and Axonify go even further, enabling you to build "microlearning" experiences that tell you just what you want to know.

• Gamification is built in. None of these new systems are games, but they use the concepts of gamification everywhere. BetterWorks has visual cues (a beautiful tree) that tell you how far you are in achieving goals, giving you incentive to use the app more often. Reflektive and others use points and various forms of accumulated credits to encourage you to come back. Globoforce, Limeaid, and VirginPulse and other social recognition tools provide you badges and other cues to make using them more rewarding and fun.

• Analytics is embedded. These new tools don't focus so much on analytics dashboards and reporting tools, rather they use data to suggest or recommend activity in a useful way.

• Behavioral economics has appeared. Rather than tell you "you have a compliance program to finish," they "suggest" what you should do next. Rather than tell you to "travel less" they show how your travel compares with your peers, for example. These are "nudges" rather than "directives."

• They are simple. These new apps are not cluttered up with dozens of buttons and options. They try to do one or two things well. They are minimalist in their design and require no training to learn to use.

Who Are These Disruptive New Vendors?

My experience studying this marketplace and talking with many of these exciting companies is that they fall into a variety of categories. (And let me warn you, these categories are already starting to merge.) The key categories I see are listed below, with a few of the representative vendors (this is by no means a complete list):

Convergence Of Applications Ahead

Just as the integrated talent management market converged into a set of suites, I see the same thing happening again in the team and app-based HR software market. This time the convergence is even more significant.  The big categories coming together are:

1. Performance management.

2. Engagement and feedback.

3. Wellness, fitness.

4. Always-on learning.

5. Social recognition.

Think about the team-centric work environment of today. You are in a meeting, a team-mate makes a great contribution, you provide the person thanks (in the form of feedback) and recognition (in the form of points), the person gets coaching advice from you and others, and when the manager has his "check-in" the social recognition, feedback, and coaching he receives is all available as part of the conversation.

Then, as the individual logs back into his employee app, the system is smart enough to connect him to others with similar interests, shows him videos of experts on the subjects in his feedback, and he or she can sign up for developmental training, or even look at open job opportunities based on his or her interest. And along the way the employee wants to maintain his or her fitness and performance so they sign up for walking or step challenges, inviting others from his team.

One client even wants to take these new employee apps and open them up to customers, so customers can provide "feedback" and recognition points directly to employees. Think about the power of this type of performance review!

It's pretty clear to me, working with all these vendors, that the "wellness" marketplace, which focused primarily on programs to reduce insurance costs, is now starting to converge with the marketplace for employee performance and engagement. In today's always-on environment, our ability to "stay well" and maintain a fit attitude and frame of mind, has a huge impact on our engagement and performance. And the organization must take responsibility for building a work environment which facilitates and supports fitness: from exercise to food to work environment to management.

Who Are The New Winners?

In the last major wave of talent management software, companies like SuccessFactors, Taleo, and Cornerstone emerged from the crowd as highly valued ($Billion or more) vendors, while others were acquired or remained small. In this market reinvention, the same thing is likely to happen: some of these companies will grow, some will be acquired, and others will remain small or disappear.

Buyers, investors, and potential employees want to know - who will most likely succeed?

My experience in the HR software market shows that it typically takes four things to succeed.

• First, the winning companies need a management team that really understands how to position, market and sell their product. The HR marketplace is enormous - virtually every company of every size has an HR department, so it is highly competitive and complex. Winning vendors know how to position themselves well, they hire strong and relevant sales teams, and their executives focus on one segment, industry, or geography. Over my 38 years in the technology industry, I've noticed that sales and marketing always seems to win over the "best product."

• Second, the winning vendors will have product strategies that are relevant and expansive. Every one of these market categories is rapidly changing, so the winning vendors have to develop a highly engaging product that is very easy to use, while simultaneously being ready to expand into new areas as the category changes. The recruiting market is a perfect example: since the original development of the applicant tracking system, features like video interviewing, interview management, sourcing management, candidate marketing, and dozens of new "sub applications" have emerged. The most innovative and fast-moving vendors have stayed up and continue to be relevant to clients year after year.

• Third, the winning vendors will also have a scalable technology architecture and experience building real mobile apps. The new world of HR tools will be app-based and employee-centric, so the winning providers will be able to scan into ERP-scale data management while embedding analytics, video, gamification, and the other disruptive technologies mentioned earlier.

• Fourth, I believe winning HR vendors have patient, and enduring management teams. The HR marketplace is intriguing and attractive to many new entrants, but my experience shows that companies have to really learn the market and patiently build a strong brand. Customer service, company culture, and passion play a major part of success in this marketplace, so I always evaluate vendors based on the level of passion and commitment by the leadership team.

Even with these four characteristics, these fast-growing companies have lots of work ahead. While their marketplace seems hot and exciting today, most HR buyers are conservative and want to buy from well established companies. Vendors have to be aggressive about growth, because every one of the markets I mentioned above is filled with passionate, high-energy vendors. And the big vendors in the market (Oracle, SAP, Workday, ADP, Ceridian, Cornerstone, etc.) are all very experienced and are likely to acquire established vendors as soon as they reach a certain size.

What Should Incumbent Vendors Do?

The interesting part of this market evolution is what the bigger vendors will do. One can always imagine a scenario where Oracle, SAP, Workday and others actually build everything they need to compete in these new markets. While this sounds reasonable, the "innovators dilemma” always seems to take over: bigger providers rarely innovate as fast as a startup. So we can safely assume that as some of these vendors grow, many will be acquired by the bigger players.

Platform As A Service (PAAS) Strategies

If you accept the fact that the HR technology market is reinventing itself, what should the big incumbent ERP-like vendors do? Can they possibly build all the engagement, wellness, performance, collaboration, and analytics apps everyone needs? The strategy that might makes sense for some of the larger HR technology vendors (any HR software company with $200M or more of revenue) is to build an "app marketplace" or “platform as a service” solution. These companies would expose programming interfaces (API’s) to their platforms and work with selected application vendors as partners.

Several vendors are now doing this now:  ADP now has its app marketplace, which has more than 100 solutions available. SAP has announced the HANA Cloud Platform and a partner program to encourage apps built on HANA. Cornerstone has now released Cornerstone Edge, its open platform to enable smaller vendors to build apps and surrounding applications. Each of these vendors have thousands of customers, so any application vendor would do well by joining these marketplaces. Oracle, SAP, and Workday have many technology partners as well, but none have gone quite this far yet. I believe if the market goes as expected, such a strategy makes sense. (Look at how effective it has been for Salesforce.com, which now has thousands of business partners built on Salesforce.)

Imagine if you could go to your existing payroll, HRMS, or talent management vendor and find a family of partners selling wellness apps, engagement apps, feedback apps, etc. on their platform. A learning management systems company might want a family of video sharing tools or video authoring tools or contextual learning tools which plug into their platform. This strategy, becoming a "platform" company, is precisely what companies like Facebook, Google, and Twitter have done - and it often ends up making them even bigger and more profitable companies over time. Vendors who can effectively leverage a platform (Cornerstone's new Platform as a Service strategy, called Edge, is an example), have the potential to scale far beyond the resources of their own R&D.

Disruption Is Coming: Stay Aware

I believe we are in the early days of this shift, but it is starting to accelerate rapidly. I regularly meet with HR technology buyers and senior HR leaders and they are hungry for compelling new employee-centric solutions. Companies of all sizes are now shopping for new apps for recruitment, sourcing, assessment, feedback, performance, employee engagement, and wellness. So while the new generation of vendors are mostly new, disruption starts now.

Thu, 11 May 2023 08:02:00 -0500 Josh Bersin en text/html https://www.forbes.com/sites/joshbersin/2016/07/18/the-hr-software-market-reinvents-itself/ By ayork@insider.com (Alexandra York,Britney Nguyen,Emily Canal,Tim Paradis) of Business Insider |

• Layoffs and fights over employees' work-from-home desires are challenging HR pros in new ways.
• Insider put out a call for talent heads navigating the changing norms around workplace culture.
• Our list spans industries and includes human-resources leaders at Chipotle, Lionsgate, and Moderna.

The workforce of today looks far different than just a few years ago. 

Workers and their employers are navigating a rockier economy that's emerging from the pandemic's bust and boom. Some companies are shedding tens of thousands of workers. Meanwhile, many employees and the corporate leaders who oversee them are engaged in a tug-of-war over work-from-home policies. Debates about how much work is enough so employees can thrive at their jobs while living fulfilling lives when they're off the clock are becoming more common.

Conversations that perhaps only bubbled up occasionally a few years back now fill boardrooms. Some companies are now having once-unthinkable discussions about whether to provide up offices or try a four-day workweek.

For the fourth year, Insider sought nominations for human-resource leaders and experts who are driving change within their companies and industries. We asked questions about how standout HR leaders are navigating economic uncertainty, how they're supporting efforts around diversity, equity, and inclusion, and how they might be reimagining work. 

This year's honorees, similarly to those from last year, represent an array of US employers, including the entertainment company Lionsgate, the restaurant chain Chipotle Mexican Grill, and the biotech company Moderna. 

The accomplishments of leaders at these companies and others on the list include uplifting underrepresented talent and helping employees find balance and support for life outside of work — all to make their workplaces more equitable and productive.

Women hold most HR positions, and our list reflects that. This was unintentional but not surprising.

Listed in alphabetical order based on last name, here are 14 HR leaders making waves. The honorees' descriptions have been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.

© Jamila Daniel/Lionsgate, Naveen Bhateja/Medidata Solutions , Purvi Tailor/courtesy of Ferring Pharma... Thu, 20 Apr 2023 22:06:00 -0500 en-US text/html https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/careersandeducation/14-hr-professionals-who-are-leading-through-tumultuous-times-in-the-workplace-with-a-focus-on-compassion-mental-health-and-dei/ss-AA1a92CA

Human Resources professionals are responsible for ensuring that employees comply with security policies that are designed to protect your firm, your clients and your workforce. Aside from making employees aware of company policies and procedures, HR representatives must work with management to investigate and address any instances involving violations of these rules.

Recruitment

1. The role of an HR professional in upholding your company's security policies begins during the staff recruitment process. Legally, you can conduct background checks on prospective hires as long as you gain the consent of those individuals. Pre-employment checks usually include criminal history investigations and credit reports. Financial services companies and other firms that handle cash and sensitive data often eliminate people with poor credit or past convictions from the applicant pool after reviewing background checks.

Code Of Conduct

1. Your firm could lose money if your workers casually share proprietary information with your competitors. Additionally, you could face lawsuits if employees fail to protect your client's financial information. To avoid such issues, implement a company code of conduct. This HR document should include clear instructions for safeguarding sensitive information. Provide every employee with a copy of this policy and require every new hire to sign an agreement to abide by the code of conduct. Over time you might need to update or amend this document to accommodate the implementation of new processes or procedures. HR representatives are responsible for ensuring that employees are made aware of such changes.

Information Technology

1. Most companies are heavily reliant on computer software and various types of remote communication devices. Consequently, HR professionals must work closely with information technology personnel to ensure that employee files are encrypted and that appropriate security mechanisms have been put in place. HR policies can dictate the manner in which your employees can access work systems from home or from other locations. HR professionals must liaise between the IT department and these workers to ensure they understand the methods of accessing data and the rules for viewing such information.

Violations

1. Even with codes of conduct and encryption devices, some unscrupulous people find ways to circumvent systems and violate company rules. If this is the case, investigate all security violations and take the appropriate disciplinary action. If violations are overlooked, then other employees might start to ignore the rules. Furthermore, you leave the company open to discrimination lawsuits if you fail to consistently enforce company policies.

   In extreme cases involving employee theft or fraud, HR representatives must contact law enforcement officials and press charges against the violators. Therefore, the role of HR in enforcing a security policy begins before an employee joins the firm and might end months or years after a particular employee has left the company.

Sat, 21 Jul 2018 15:52:00 -0500 en-US text/html https://smallbusiness.chron.com/role-hr-play-enforcing-security-policy-39619.html

Whether they are ensuring the resiliency of satellite systems or finding a better way to remove dangerous debris from orbit, the aerospace sector is ensuring talent has the opportunity to flourish.

As we know, the tech industry hasn't done a great job hiring women and minorities. The same could be said for aerospace. But there's a difference - the aerospace industry has launched a major initiative, Space Workforce2030, whereby 3,000 paid internships for minority students have been created around the United States. Led by The Aerospace Corporation in Los Angeles, 30 space companies such as Boeing, Northrop, SpaceX, Blue Origin, Slingshot and others are involved.

So far, more than 400 students have signed up from UCLA, USC, Cal State Long Beach, MIT, Georgia Tech, Purdue and other universities. More students are joining every week, for the programme that starts this summer.

Leading the execution of this programme is Heather R. Laychak, Vice President and Chief People Officer, The Aerospace Corporation (pictured above), who brings more than 20 years of HR experience across for‑profit and non-profit companies in industries including defense, academia, retail, and entertainment.

As a strategic advisor to the CEO and executive leadership team, Laychak is responsible for developing and executing the corporation’s HR strategy to achieve business, people, and organisational objectives. She also serves as the management liaison for the Compensation and Personnel Committee of the Board of Trustees, responsible for company-wide compensation and benefits, executive incentive plan management, succession planning, workforce engagement, and cultural climate.

In this interview with HRO’s Aditi Sharma Kalra, Laychak talks about talent challenges unique to the aerospace sector, such as the need for security clearances for staff to come into office, and the successes, such as giving more career opportunities to women and people of colour, and aligning the company mission to broader societal priorities.

Read on for the interview:

Q With more than 20 years of experience in HR in both for profit and non-profit companies, what are some valuable lessons you've learnt on both sides in terms of motivating people for performance?

We all want to know that we make a difference – personally, professionally, in our communities. I believe that every employee shows up to work and wants to do great work and make an impact. It’s important to connect employees to a purpose and show them how their work contributes to the broader mission of the organisation. High performing organisations tend to have a culture committed to continuous feedback which requires strong managers who know how to have authentic, candid, (sometimes difficult), empathic conversations with their people and teams. Also key are recognition and reward programmes that clearly convey, recognise and reward the behaviours (the how) and performance outcomes (the what) that are expected.

Q How did you find yourself in the HR space, and what keeps you glued to it?

I never envisioned that I would end up with a career in HR. But when I think about the varied roles I have had, they all prepared me for where I am today. Business strategies require people and organisational strategies which means that HR plays a critical role in shaping and enabling organisations to achieve their strategic intentions and full potential. We have the incredible and privileged responsibility to ensure our organisations have the workforce, leadership, and culture needed to evolve and sustain an organisation’s distinguished relevancy. It’s also important for HR to think beyond walls of their organisations. A global pandemic, in addition to the racial, social, economic, and political challenges we have faced and continue to face, has forced a new agenda for HR leaders who have an extraordinary opportunity to partner with other organisations to inspire the future workforce and collectively make their industries and companies and communities stronger.

Q In the role of CPO for The Aerospace Corp, an R&D centre for national security space, what are your typical talent opportunities and challenges?

We share many of the same challenges with the tech sector, which is high demand for critical skills and with the added requirement for the majority of our workforce to have security clearances, which requires people to come into the office to do their jobs. And in today’s post-pandemic world, we know that people seek out and make career decisions based on the flexibility that is available. We worried at first that we would see attrition of our cleared talent increase but we haven’t. Our workforce is doing critical work in support of our national security and that mission motivates our people, and it means looking at how we recognise their commitment and provide the most optimal work environment.

Probably the biggest challenge that we are focused on is ensuring we have a diverse technical workforce now and in the future given the insufficient STEM pipeline. This is why we initiated Space Workforce 2030 - so that we hold ourselves and industry accountable for increasing the collective diversity in our technical workforce, and leader demographics by 2030, while also striving to reach and inspire 5mn students each year to pursue STEM degrees and careers.

Q Tell us about some of the proudest milestones you've achieved in managing talent acquisition, DEI, L&D, labour relations, and more for the organisation.

• People acquisition – We have faced unprecedented, record-breaking hiring over the last two years, and last year, we achieved the highest percentage of diverse hires in our history.

• DEI – In 2022, our CEO worked to bring 31 space companies together to form Space Workforce 2030. This first-of-its-kind initiative is an industrywide, collaborative effort to increase diversity and representation in our technical workforces over the long-term.

• People and organisation development – Our leadership philosophy is that every person in any role at any level has the potential to demonstrate leadership. We are committed to early identification, development, diversity, and transparency when it comes to high potentials and succession candidates.

• Engagement & culture – We pulse our employees twice annually to assess their engagement and recently introduced a culture survey to ascertain our cultural strengths and “secret sauce” and where we might need to focus our attention on new or different cultural behaviours aligned to our strategic intentions and employee value proposition.

• We are very forward leaning when it comes to DEI which makes me so proud to work at this company. Our CEO and Board walk the talk. DEI is embedded in everything we do.

• Establishing a robust workforce analytics capability. Metrics are key. They inform your strategies, programmes, processes, and investments. They enable you to bring solutions to the business and your people.

Q So far, in its inaugural year, 900 minority students have signed up for paid internships under Space Workforce 2030 (SWF 2030). What was the business need that led to the making of this initiative, and has the progress been as you planned?

The business need has always been present. America’s national security requires strong capability in STEM fields and industries, yet the number of students studying a STEM discipline in the United States is lagging behind other countries, and the representation of women and people of colour studying STEM disciplines is even worse. The Space Workforce 2030 companies established the National Space Intern (NSI) programme to create equitable pathways to prepare, develop, and mentor diverse students for careers in STEM. Collectively, our companies will build a diverse STEM student pipeline by providing experiential learning, exposure, and experience to ensure the space industry workforce reflects the diversity of America.

We are pleased with our progress. In our inaugural year, we had more than 1,000 students register, with our inaugural SWF2030 NSI cohort kicking off this summer.

Q With STEM sectors traditionally making slow progress on diversity in the workplace, what can employers do better to support diversity in these industries?

Employers need to cast a wider net. We cannot return to the same schools and educational programmes every year and expect them to provide larger numbers of diverse employees. We need to push ourselves to look further for applicants, and to also include large diverse underrepresented groups of people in our applicant pool for every position.

Q You're currently employing 4,600 diverse and talented people - how do you ensure the organisation's values are communicated and lived across the workforce, through its scientists, engineers, managers, and more?

We are laser focused on a culture of inclusion with attention to key practices, like looking at work routines or processes to make inclusion an integral part of the way our employees work. We also set clear expectations among our managers that they will exhibit inclusive leadership behaviours, and we reward inclusive leaders for their efforts and role modelling of key values and behaviours.

Finally, we have aligned the mission of our organisation to the broader equity issues faced by the community. This includes reviewing our services, outreach and programmes through the lens of inclusion to carry out our mission in culturally relevant ways.

Q One of your strengths in this role is to manage a variety of stakeholders - apart from the internal stakeholders. Could you share your advice on how HR leaders can lead such conversations, and elevate HR further into speaking the business language?

As Peter Drucker said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” At Aerospace, enabling a culture of trust, inclusion, and belonging where everyone can bring their best to the customer’s toughest problems is critical to maximise performance. Recognising that “our people are our business” helps to facilitate HR’s value as a strategic partner when we’re having those conversations with external parties.
I find that it is important that HR professionals are deeply knowledgeable about their organisation’s business, including bringing the financial acumen needed to elevate their impact.
There is no doubt that the HR has a vital role to play in tackling the most important challenges businesses are facing right now. As HR professionals, we help our organisations succeed when we take intelligent risks, are change agile, and build a financially accountable culture that supports our business model.

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Lead image / Provided (featuring the interviewee)

Sun, 04 Jun 2023 14:41:00 -0500 en text/html https://www.humanresourcesonline.net/it-s-important-for-hr-to-think-beyond-walls-of-their-organisations-heather-laychak-cpo-the-aerospace-corporation © Provided by Chip Chick

Have you ever worked in an office setting that had bad vibes? Some people get stuck in strictly professional offices, and others can’t stand being in a work environment that feels too loose or unprofessional.

One man was recently confronted by one of his coworkers after he’s been treating her differently from the rest of the office because he was scared of being reported to HR.

He’s been working at the same company for a while and has had nice relationships with his coworkers. He’s not best friends with any of them, but he’s shared some laughs with them, gone out for drinks with them off the clock, and overall feels comfortable in his work environment.

Recently, his company hired a new employee. Soon after she was hired, everyone in the office received an email from human resources telling them they had to attend an employee conduct and harassment meeting.

At the meeting, they were encouraged to keep conversations unrelated to work to a minimum and stay professional. The company was also given advice they had already heard before, like never making comments on anyone’s physical appearance.

The human resources employees also played a few pre-recorded scenarios for them, one including how they should behave if they see each other outside of work. They were taught that the right way to interact with their fellow employees in public is to keep the conversation short and brief.

The meeting was odd because although they’ve had to sit through HR meetings before, this one was much more extensive than usual.

Eventually, the new employee admitted to asking HR if they could provide that presentation.

“She said that she agreed with everything we learned and that it was good to know,” he remembered.

© Provided by Chip Chick LIGHTFIELD STUDIOS – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual person

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“I’m not here to judge her or say she did the wrong thing. I don’t know what she experienced in [the] short time she’s worked here or at a previous job. I don’t know the kind of life she has lived or what she’s gone through.”

When he ran into his new coworker at a coffee shop, he behaved like the exemplary employees in the HR video. They had a friendly and short conversation before he went on his way. They ran into each other at the grocery store a little while later, and he did the same thing.

She Let Her Guests Wear White To Her Wedding, And Then Her Husband’s Ex-Girlfriend Showed Up In A White Ball Gown That Looked Like A Wedding Dress

However, his coworker seemed to be put off by his more reserved behavior, even though he was doing exactly as HR told him.

While he’s been more reserved with the new employee, he’s continued to be more friendly and outgoing with her other coworkers. They have a history together and are a lot more “buddy-buddy.”

The difference in his behavior has bothered the new employee, who eventually confronted him and asked why she was more isolated from everyone else in the office.

“I told her I just don’t want anything to be misconstrued,” he explained.

“I’m doing what HR suggested. I’m obviously not going to provide my coworkers I already have a bond [and] friendship with the cold shoulder to accommodate one new person. She said she agreed with everything we learned from HR, so I am just applying it.”

Should he be more personal with his new coworker, or is he being smart by following the rules?

You can read the original post on Reddit here.

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In 2014, She Vanished From Alaska In The Middle Of The Night, And Her Purse Was Later Found Buried In The Snow Along A Hiking Trail

She Was Considered A Pioneer Of Modern Indian Art For The Way That She Portrayed Indian Women In The 1930s

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After A Really Tough Week, She Got Into A Fight With A Woman Over A Donut At A Coffee Shop

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Thu, 01 Jun 2023 23:00:25 -0500 en-US text/html https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/weddings/his-new-coworker-confronted-him-for-treating-her-differently-from-the-rest-of-the-office-but-hes-just-trying-to-play-it-safe-after-this-woman-asked-hr-to-give-everyone-harassment-training/ar-AA1c1VMH

Culture and History

The end of the nineteenth century saw a rapid growth toward an industrial society, and Philadelphia financier and philanthropist Anthony J. Drexel envisioned an institution of higher learning uniquely suited to the needs the young men and women seeking their place in it. In 1891, he founded the Drexel Institute of Art, Science and Industry.

More than 125 years later, Drexel University continues to attract a diverse and talented student body, faculty and community. Our undergraduate, graduate, part-time and online students study in a range of academic disciplines including our law and medical schools – but one thing unites them all: drive. This drive is perhaps best exemplified by Drexel's undergraduates, who after freshman year, take part in one of up to three Drexel Co-op experiences, in which they alternate six months of classroom education with six-months of professional experience.

Like its students, Drexel's employees are also passionate, innovative people who work hard, have fun and strive to make the University top of its class.

To learn more about Drexel University's culture and history, take a look at the following materials:

Tue, 18 Aug 2020 17:57:00 -0500 en text/html https://drexel.edu/hr/atDrexel/culture/

May 11—BATESVILLE — An energetic approach to leadership and a breadth of experience has earned Mari Jo Moody, senior vice president and chief human resources officer with Batesville Services, the 2023 Ogletree Deakins Human Resources Professional of the Year Award.

The Indiana Chamber of Commerce recently honored Moody at the 59th Annual Indiana Human Resources Conference & Expo at the Indiana Convention Center.

The Ogletree Deakins HR Professional of the Year Award recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to their workplace over the past year through implementation of best practices, organization design and effectiveness, and alignment and accomplishment of the strategic direction of their company. It spotlights those who also are dedicated to giving back to the community and the HR profession.

"Mari Jo has made her mark at Batesville in terms of people she's assisted and processes she's improved and implemented in her 26-plus year affiliation with the organization," Indiana Chamber President and CEO Kevin Brinegar said.

Batesville offers a wide selection of burial and cremation products, as well as memorial keepsakes. Founded in 1884, Batesville is entering a new era following its February 2023 acquisition by LongRange Capital, a private investment firm focused on building and growing middle-market business over the long term.

"As Batesville starts to operate as a private, standalone business for the first time in its history, Mari Jo is helping lead the charge," Brinegar said. "She's collaborating with LongRange Capital to use data, analytics and technology to Strengthen operations with an emphasis on ultimately delivering better service. Mari Jo is committed to investing in the people, products, facilities, capabilities and services to support and grow the business for the next generation of employees and customers."

Moody assumed her current position early this year, but her work with Batesville Services dates back to 1996 with its former parent company, Hillenbrand. Her career has encompassed a cross section of human resources, executive compensation, information technology, continuous improvement and internal auditing.

"Human resources provides a vital link between a company's people and its business results," Moody said. "As HR professionals, our role is to balance the needs of individuals with the goals of the organization, recognizing that both are essential for long-term success. It is through this collaborative effort that we can drive sustainable results for our people, our business and our communities." — Information provided

Thu, 11 May 2023 08:10:00 -0500 en-US text/html https://news.yahoo.com/batesvilles-moody-named-hr-professional-195300721.html No result found, try new keyword!New York Mets slugger Pete Alonso hit another home run on Sunday afternoon, and with it, he joined Citi Field history. Sun, 04 Jun 2023 12:08:00 -0500 text/html https://www.si.com/fannation/mlb/fastball/history/new-york-mets-pete-alonso-makes-citi-field-history-with-home-run

Drexel Honors Black History Month

The Annual Drexel University Black History Month Reception for faculty and professional staff will be sponsored by Black Faculty and Professional Staff Association.

Please plan to join the Black Faculty and Professional Staff Association for the 2014 Black History Month Reception on Thursday, February 20^th at 12 noon in the Behrakis Grand Hall.  All Drexel faculty and professional staff members are invited. The event will feature local vendors, an employee talent show, line dances and light lunch.  All faculty and professional staff members are encouraged to wear African attire.

The BFPSA would like to thank the Office of Human Resources for sponsoring this great event for the past 5 years and look forward to sponsoring this event in the future.

For more details be sure to check out the BFPSA Facebook page.

Drexel Black Faculty and Professional Staff Association

"Fostering a sense of community through support and engagement"

BFPSA@drexel.edu  |  www.facebook.com/DrexelBFPSA

Sat, 06 Oct 2018 00:23:00 -0500 en text/html https://drexel.edu/hr/about/events/blackhistory/