How the strongest HR teams work
Joris Luijke (He/Him)
Co-founder at Pyn | Former People Chief Atlassian and Squarespace
Urgent! Request! React now!
?? In HR, we spend too much time in Reactive Mode
Some important work will always be reactive. Reacting to the unexpected is part of our job.
But so is being proactive.
Too much reactive work means our business stagnates. And we risk burning out as we’re always on someone else’s schedule.
Ideally, how much time should we spent in Proactive Mode?
?? The 70% Proactive Work Goal
Reactive teams respond to problems after they happen. Proactive teams eliminate them before.
The strong HR teams spend most of their time, about 70%, on proactive work - and just 30% of time on reactive tasks. It's a stretch goal, but realistic if you structure work in a certain way outlined below. Unfortunately, most teams barely get to 40%
How to be more Proactive?
?? Better Foresight. Better Timing
How do you take HR from being a reactive, transactional business process, to a strategic, proactive service delivering more value to the organization?
The difference between reactive and proactive HR comes down to better foresight and timing.
Once you achieve this balance, your team will forever be different – in the best possible way.
The big question - how will you get there?
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STEP 1: Map your processes ??
Put together an Employee Journey Map
Proactivity starts with understanding.
In the HR context, we need to map what predictable events/moments could happen throughout an employee journey.
We can never predict the truly unexpected - that’s ok. But many things that pop up could have been anticipated.
How to quickly create a Journey Map?
Recently, we open sourced a detailed Journey Map. Feel free to use!
If you are in HR and like to geek out on this stuff, come join me on March 2nd. We’ll be provide tools to create your own during a Webinar Pyn is hosting with BambooHR.
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STEP 2: Pinpoint Leading Indicators ????♀?
Early signals we should act on
We react to “lagging indicators” or output measures. To be proactive, we should identify “leading indicators” or predictive measurement.
Examples:
- You hear "Folks feel exhausted" ?? A leading indicator may have been that those folks took less than 4 days vacation in past 6 months.
- You need to "structure a PIP for an underperforming Support Agent" ?? A leading indicator may have been that their Customer Satisfaction Score (Csat) dropped for 2 consecutive weeks sometimes in the months prior
- You're dealing with a "Person who resigned citing salary concerns" ?? A leading indicator may have been that there are folks with high performance rating who haven’t received a salary increase for 1+ year.
How to get this (leading indicator) data
You already have it!
The data is all in your HRIS. Or in Zendesk. Or Salesforce. Or whatever system you alreadyt use. We just don't do much with that important information.
Tools like Pyn extract relevant data from those systems. And they basically define warning signals that could lead to an issue down the track.
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STEP 3: Provide actionable info ???♂?
Nudge and guide the right folks towards action
Proactive HR teams ensure employees or managers are made aware of important moments without the need for HR to get involved.
They send informational and actionable nudges when leading indicators come up.
It cuts out a huge HR workload, as those team proactively avoid possible questions or issues developing later.
Examples:
- Nudge to manager of new parent a few weeks prior to them returning from leave with information on how to put together a return to work plan.
- Nudge a manager who has a direct report in India when Diwali (a public Holiday in India) is coming up so they can wish them a happy time and take steps to be prepared for out of office time .
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For those who want more info on webinar:
When: March 2nd 1pm (PT)
Hosts:
- Joris Luijke, Pyn Cofounder (ex Chief People Officer Atlassian and Squarespace)
- Amy Frampton, BambooHR VP Marketing (ex Marketing Smartsheet, Microsoft)
- Lindsey Caplan, Pyn Content Strategy (ex Head L&D Flexport, Credit Karma, Zendesk)
Chief People Officer @ JobAdder | Progressive HR Leader | Enabling High Performance Cultures
4 年Top tips Joris Luijke (He/Him). Totally agree that the only way to get out of the reactive weeds is to get upstream and design solutions at source.
Building teams and workplace destinations for global Web3 talent
4 年Great article, Joris Luijke (He/Him)! I had 2 follow up questions, if you have time. 1) You stated that 70% of an HR team's time should be proactive and 30% reactive. What tools or process have you leveraged to help HR teams quantify their time? I have tried a few tools like Timeular and other time tracking apps to understand how I spend my time, but on a team level, I have not used this approach. Curious how to quantify this as a team to set benchmarks and visibility? 2) Do you have resources on how companies start identifying the most meaningful leading indicators at different stages of growth? Thanks again! Rachel
Commercial, Strategy & Ops | Board Member | Angel Investor/Fellow at Afterwork VC
4 年Fantastic read!
Building to break silos | Alum: Postman, PlumHQ, Springworks
4 年Good article! Looking fwd to attending the webinar! ??