The research around people practices is wide and deep and we know today much more about how this works than 5 or 10 years ago. This is fantastic and helps us in our daily life as HR professionals. But it also sometimes leads us down the wrong path when we design new processes and practices. We think too complex and subsequently design too complex.
Sophistication vs. Simplicity
We all pride ourselves in knowing the latest and best in management of people and people processes. And that is indeed very important and required to make sure we can have a positive impact in our so critical resource of people – today more than ever actually. So when we design practices like Management of Talent or Performance or highly sophisticated Rewards systems we bring in all the latest research and theory that we have read up or learned via workshops or educational sessions. We pride ourselves about it and prepare fantastic presentations for our fellow HR colleagues to show what we are planning and how it all should work. We bring it then from the powerpoint slide into action and … are surprised that somehow the reality looks different? We somehow don’t get the outcome we expect? Maybe there are even colleagues that complain about our fantastic idea?
So what has happened?
Why is that? We have done it all how it is laid out in the research and theory we have learned? – and we made a big effort in building it into the tech stack and process. We even ran detailed education sessions for everyone in the organization that is supposed to take advantage of this new practice and strive because of it. But this is not what we see – not what is happening. What we often see is a mediocre adoption, and if colleagues must participate, they do often so with the bare minimum of engagement and focus. They hardly take advantage of what we offer. Of course, you always have some that totally strive for it and are the happiest and greatest in this new practice. But these are the minority.
We might not like the answer, but it is very simple. We fell into the Sophistication s. Simplicity trap.
The reason of why this happens is that we design not with the consumer in mind. The reason why is because we are failing to provide clarity on what we want to achieve – clarity for our consumers. What we should never forget is that our consumers, our colleagues that we actually want to support with this new practice are not HR colleagues. They are sitting in Finance, Sales, Marketing, R&D, and other departments. They have a different day job than figuring out HR practices and how they might take advantage of it. HR and our practices are not front and center of colleagues’ minds. Their actual work is. In addition, what we were able to create as HR professionals, we were able to create because we know these HR practices inside and out. We breath them every single day, educate ourselves on them every single day and understand the latest and smallest tweak of wording or process that (theoretically) makes it more nuanced and impactful.
Problem though is that our non-HR colleagues don’t have this knowledge, don’t get excited about the latest nuance – and are mostly not interested or don’t have the time to take a learning course on “how to do Performance Management” or “how does our Rewards system work”. So what should we do then? – should we make them take the course, should we mandate education on these topics? – in the end, we know that if they would understand and take advantage of our practices and processes, we would strive more as an organization, right?! It is not too much to ask for…just these few hours every quarter or so – and then when we make some updates again of course.
This is the wrong thinking
This unfortunately is the wrong approach. First of all we must understand that HR is and continues to be a support function. We don’t make money, we don’t directly increase sales or reduce costs, innovate new products, etc. – this means that we should not demand to take a big share of mind in our colleagues’ heads. But that we should make sure we minimize share of mind while ensuring that we can provide sufficient lubricant to make our colleagues strive. Because, and let me be clear here: I believe in HR and our practices.
But what I also believe in is impact. And that is what we sometimes forget when designing sophisticated practices: Impact. The only way we get impact is when our colleagues outside HR actually understand what we “want” from them and can and are taking advantage of it. Performance Management can only work if our colleagues actually intuitively understand how it works and how to use it. A Rewards system that is supposed to “pay for performance” can only work if our colleagues actually understand (and buy into) it. Only if they understand it, it will truly apply and work for them (and for us). People need to understand what they are doing and why – only then it works.
So what now?
So how will we get to such state? – the answer is pretty simple…as simplicity is what we need. Designing for it though is everything but simple. What will help here is “Design thinking”. Design thinking guides us the way and there are a few core principles I suggest to take into consideration:
(1) Always design from the consumer perspective, with the end-user not only in mind but being at the heart of the design process.
(2) Lay out the key achievements you want to reach. What are the 1 or 2 goals that you want to reach? Or the 1 or 2 problems you want to solve? Be clear about it and don’t ask for too much.
(3) Make sure you understand why your consumer should care about these achievements. What is in for them? Not what is in for you and HR. They must understand and buy in.
(4) Design simple and intuitive solutions – as soon as you need a training course or a multi page guide book to understand/ follow the practice or process, it is too complex
(5) Make sure you implement a measuring system as part of your deployment so that you can assess if you achieve your 1-2 key outcomes. – if not, you will know fast and can course correct
If you keep these 5 principles at the core, you have a pretty good chance that your practice or process will be successful and you actually have an impact. Simplicity will bring us forward as a function, I am sure about it.
Chief HR Officer 