{"id":1148,"date":"2014-05-07T12:34:00","date_gmt":"2014-05-07T12:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/projects\/horsesforsources\/degnan_kutik_050614\/"},"modified":"2014-05-07T12:34:00","modified_gmt":"2014-05-07T12:34:00","slug":"degnan_kutik_050614","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsesforsources.com\/degnan_kutik_050614\/","title":{"rendered":"A little bit of HR heaven as Kutik tackles the toughie from Southie"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Bill<\/a><\/p>\n

Bill Kutik (pictured left) Talks with Christa Degnan Manning. Click to listen to the interview!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Last week, our own Christa Degnan Manning<\/a>, Senior Vice President for Talent and Workforce strategies, was a guest on the revered\u00a0Bill Kutik Radio Show<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As I have explained to many people, you can’t really claim to have “made it” in HR until Bill has you on his show… it’s that passport to HR heaven to which so many people aspire. \u00a0So we’re delighted to share Christa’s debut on the hallowed stage (click\u00a0here<\/a>)\u00a0where she realized her life’s ambition of joining the HR elite, which she could only dream of when trawling the pubs of Boston’s Southie during her student days…<\/p>\n

Christa talked with Bill about four key issues:<\/p>\n

1. The Extended Enterprise<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Looking at the workforce holistically has long been a missed opportunity for businesses. The workforce is not just the people on the payroll. It\u2019s also contractors, and increasingly not just contingent workers that work for an agency, it\u2019s also consultants that do statement-of-work-type engagements, and third-party service providers doing work on behalf of organizations.<\/p>\n

Of note, first-generation outsourcing was not as successful as it could have been because no one really thought about the workforce that was left on either side: the staff that had to manage and motivate third-party service providers. And the staff of the third-party service provider had to be inculcated into the culture and the systems. The knowledge management and sharing required for them to be successful in delivering services is considerable.<\/p>\n

The extended enterprise is all of the constituents doing work on behalf of businesses today. This trend has been happening for decades and will only increase \u2013 the SAP acquisition of contract labor management software provider Fieldglass<\/a> is a tipping point. So at HfS we want to help companies look at how to source, manage, motivate, and measure all the people who are doing work on behalf of the business\u2014not just employees \u2013 but the entire extended enterprise.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>Employee Experience<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

In HfS\u2019s definition, the employee experience is actually quite broad — alot of software companies are looking to make their applications easier to use and consume. They want them to be relevant throughout the course of day-to-day work. But HfS just did an assessment of the core HR service firms, including, payroll, benefits and contact center-type support services, because it\u2019s the foundation of the employee-employer relationship and the facilitative wrapper around software, no matter how good a user interface is.<\/p>\n

And what we found was the employee experience really sucked. The systems have not been integrated, there are far too many interfaces, there\u2019s way too much self-service, and not enough consistency across devices. And now companies are struggling with the bring-your-own-device trend.<\/p>\n

There has to be some rationalization around systems and investments. But you absolutely have to consider the service wrapper around that. How are you taking care of the employee\u2014not just from a UI point of view, but in how they want to interact and when they want to interact. That shows a company ultimately cares about the workforce.<\/p>\n

Software is just a piece of the puzzle. It\u2019s the people that use the software and the people who support a business that will drive growth and expansion.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>Workforce Enablement<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Workforce enablement touches on some of these first ideas\u2014making sure that workers are able to focus on their work and not on compliance or other HR-related tasks and processes.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve done some research into academic and econometric studies on human capital\u2014where the idea is that the investments you make in people for their education and development or their health and welfare should provide you a return in productivity and business contribution. Companies have really lost sight of that. They have to really hone in on what people are doing to contribute to top-line growth\u2014as opposed to just taking out people to get better bottom line results.<\/p>\n

Benjamin Franklin coined the term \u201ctime is money.\u201d And what he was really talking about was the opportunity costs that result from what a worker was not doing<\/em> in addition to what they may be doing<\/em> that\u2019s taking them away from productive work.<\/p>\n

To understand and address this opportunity cost, which is likely way bigger than any administrative cost take out you can get in HR functions, companies have to reorient HR to focus on the day-to-day experience of the worker:<\/p>\n