HR management: The (new) rules of engagement

The future of human resource management is strikingly different from the present.

Traditionally, the primary function of a human resource (HR) manager is to ‘attract, retain, train and separate the talent’. HR personnel use much of their time carrying out tests and interviews for recruitment and selection, conducting employee appraisals, deciding rewards, perks and salaries, and spending millions of dollars in training and development.

But many organisations are now rethinking their human resource management practices in view of technological innovations and changing human dynamics. Here is a look at some of the cutting edge practices being adopted by leading companies of the world.

The hiring criteria:

College degrees, even Ivy League ones, high test scores and GPAs won’t guarantee employment in the future. In fact, the trend has already begun: 14% of Google’s team never attended college.

Google’s senior vice president for people’s operations, Laszlo Bock, identified his company’s selection criteria in an interview with The New York Times as follows:

• Cognitive ability

• Emergent leadership

• Humility

• Ownership

• Expertise

This is significantly different from the older hiring criteria, which included:

• College degrees

• Test scores (SAT, GRE, GMAT etc)

• GPA

• Interviews

What to expect in these changing market practices ? 

1. The Internet is the new résumé

Next in line of casualties in the job market would be the ubiquitous résumé or CV. The page-long list of a candidate’s credentials would increasingly be chucked away by future recruiters, says Marketing Strategy Consultant Dorie Clark, in favour of:

• Where your name appears on Google search.

• Your contribution to the business world.

• Your social media management skills on Twitter, LinkedIn etc.

• Professional networking that attracts decision-makers.

2. Down with brainteasers

How many golf balls can you fit into an airplane? How many gas stations are there in Manhattan? Challenging interview questions that are meant to judge your acumen but may have no ‘correct’ answer are now deemed useless by Google, which famously petrified job candidates with brainteasers for years.

Instead, questions like “Give me an example of a time when you solved an analytically difficult problem” are now asked as part of behavioural interviewing. The interviewer gets to see how they actually interacted in a real-world situation, and gauges their level of expertise.

The changes are not just limited to the recruitment process, but extend to other aspects of talent management as well. 

1. Say it like it is

Many leading companies, such as Microsoft, do not have evaluations through traditional appraisals and ranking systems anymore, as it is thought to kill creativity. Instead, they promote a culture of constant coaching and holding honest conversations with their employees.

2. New-age training

Training and development of employees that typically costs millions of dollars is increasingly being replaced by the more cost-effective Massive Open Online Courses, which also have the benefit of being universally accessible. Yahoo! recently collaborated with Coursera to offer Computer Science courses to its employees at a subsidised fee of $100 per student.

3. Satisfaction revisited

HR professionals formulate strategies to retain and engage employees by offering them lucrative salaries and benefits. But despite reasonable financial packages, a growing number of employees still look for new avenues. This is because money and perks are not enough for employee satisfaction; research shows there has to be ‘meaningful’ work.

Recommendations for job candidates:

• Build your value proposition by exploring your talents and pitching your strength to the prospective employer.

• Engage in volunteer work that builds your strength.

• Showcase your work on the Internet, for eg on SlideShare, LinkedIn, Instagram and blogs.

Shiraz Ahmed teaches at leading business schools of Karachi and is a corporate facilitator and a public speaker. He tweets @shirazwasif 

Published in The Express Tribune, Sunday Magazine, June 22^nd, 2014.