XBHR Annual Conference

XBHR Annual Conference

March 1 and 2, 2012, Frankfurt

Session 1:

a) Workforce Planning

Case study Evonik: computer program analyzes the future HR needs of the company

Factors that cannot be influencedsuch as pension age and demographic changes can be taken into account to understand the HR needs in the future

Factors such as future growth plans or already definite business acquisitions can be considered as well.

Study can be updated every year or every time major changes in the company's development occur

Feeding the program with new data takes only a few hours of work

Results can be used to open peoples' minds for HRneeds and to discuss workforce planning

Works Council is usually involved and interested in long-term workforce planning

Are there any data privacy protection issues? No, program uses data relating to positions, not to individual people

Is program flexible enough to allow for economic up- or downturn?

b) Talent Mobility

Number of expats increase and more cross-border work

Why move talent across borders?

Assignees benefit from talent development (skills, language, cultural understanding)
Company is able to react to a local shortage of talent, assignee can train new talents, assignee often has positive impact on work/culture in the abroad office.

Challenges by administrative procedures (e.g., VISA): helpful to have a team in the company that builds up the relevant know-how and takes care of these issues for assignee

Trend away from "fixed package", flexible solutions more commonly used

Companies became more cost-sensitive, especially if assignment is mainly an investment in development of the employee

Problem: company has to ensure the right use of this investment after assignee returns

Assignees often work in same positions as before (no use of new skills)
Often no open position for assignee (new employee in the assignee's old position)
=> Company has to keep assignee and his future role in mind while he is abroad

New trend from "move talent to where work is", to "move work to where talent is" (especially "easy work", such as call center)

Session 2: Talent Management

To sustain economic growth by 2030, the USA will need an additional 25 million workers, Western European additional 45 million workers

Worldwide employability problem: only 25% of Indian and 20% of Russian professionals are considered employable by multinationals

In recessions, focus on talent management in terms of talent retention

Influence of economic development on talent shortages vs. rising unemployment

Successful talent management consists of six guiding principles:

Internal consistency
Management involvement
Employer-branding through differentiation
Balancing global and local needs
Cultural embeddedness
Alignment with strategy

Approach of multinationals to talent management?

Strong focus on high potentials/leaders
To train employees for new challenges
Constant feedback regarding performance is a key element

Legal pitfalls when recruiting externally?

Tax aspects if employees are moved abroad
Local employment laws that do not reflect the current economic situation
Talent management vs. age discrimination and not managing poor performance well

Performance review - important elements

Transparency (Why did I get bad ratings? Where did I fail? What can be improved?)
Self evaluations as a solution to wrong expectations
Being objective – difficult with regard to "soft criteria" (e.g., good client relationships, good judgment, being decisive)
Especially in the event of bad ratings: mid-year reviews to avoid mismatch of expectations

Underperformance management - as important as management of top performers?

Low performance can have different reasons (e.g., wrong manager, wrong position)
Managers should coach poor performer too
Often not done at all, because very time-consuming
Bringing a poor performer to an average level brings as much gain as bringing an average performer to a high level
Poor performer-management could be part of the manager's objectives

Session 3: Post-Merger Integration - HR Challenges

HRissues are often not taken into account until everything is already decided upon and nothing is prepared for time after signing

Lack of prepared integration phase is one of the reasons why mergers often fail

Mere increase in size does not lead to success; the respective strengths have to be utilized

To develop a common company culture, it is useful to have HR involvement from both parties possibly forming an integration team

There is no "one size fits all", but attention should be paid to the human aspect to increase the chances of a successful merger

Strategy should be developed commonly with input from Finance, Business and HR

Strengths and weaknesses of both companies should be analyzed (do they complement one another)

HR can assess the key players within the target company who are needed to keep the business running (compatibility? can we retain them? is merger perceived as a positive development?)

HR can also assess the cultures of both companies (bureaucratic, innovative, customer driven, open communication, focus on development of employees, strong business ethics, clear vision, flat organizational structure)

And assess the compatibility of the cultures (match of cultures? major differences in culture? can we get the best of both cultures?)

This way, feelings within the workforce regarding the merger can be put into comparable numbers

Awareness can be raised of potential benefits and of potential challenges of the merger

Important to have an experienced person as integration leader and an integration team with HRpeople from both companies

Big task to align the employment conditions, should be kept in mind during DD

HR sometimes cannot assess employees at an early stage to prevent the deal from becoming public

Soon after a merger, employees are open to change:

Use this time to implement changes quickly, communicate the vision, but do not use language that implies that everything is already a "done deal"
"bad news" should also be communicated quickly and openly instead of maintaining uncertainty within the workforce for longer than necessary

In the event of merger with a former competitor: How do you overcome "us and them-thinking"? For example, workshops, give same standards to both sides (equal treatment), engage all employees, harmonize processes

Session 4: Demise of Unions and Collective Bargaining? Unions Strive to Achieve International Framework Agreements and Target MNC at Their Weakest Spot?

IFAs are negotiated between multinational companies (MNCs) and global union federations (GUFs)

IFAs are global instruments with the main purpose of ensuring the international labor standards and compliance with human rights in all of the target company's locations

Although there are variations in the contents of IFAs, all agreements are based on International Labour Organization (ILO) core labor standards. The majority of the IFAs refer inter aliato the freedom of association, the right to collective bargaining, the abolition of forced labor and the elimination of child labor

Currently there are 91 IFAs, most of which were entered into by European headquartered MNCs

Arguments for signing IFAs:

Relationships between MNCs and unions might improve
No harm since MNCs follow these principles anyway
Expectation from customers to sign IFAs, improvement in business relationships
Brand name can be promoted by signing IFAs
IFAs have no enforcement mechanism anyway

Arguments against signing IFAs:

Vague and ambiguous language, which is often used in IFAs, might be used by unions to pressure MNCs with alleged violations ("to blame and to shame"). Risk that local labor disputes are presented to the public as violations of human rights or international labor standards
Risk of uncertainty due to cross references to other documents, which are themselves open to interpretation and might be changed in the future
Resources needed to monitor the referenced documents and to ensure that there is no violation
In the U.S., IFAs were used by unions to gain additional rights (right to go into a company to pitch for workers)

Better to have company-own document obliging the MNC to follow international labor standards

In case of signing, attention must be paid to unambiguous and tight language and clear definitions, cross references to other documents should be avoided or at least limited

Unions sometimes make pressure via main contractors (VW backed up union against Bosch in India)

Who might be next target?

Maybe the financial sector
Involvement of unions regarding compensation or bonus schemes possible (executive bonuses)
There might be political pressure to have such IFAs (good to sell to public)

IFAs will become more present again once economy picks up again, and not signing will be difficult in order to avoid bad press

Whether a MNC signs an IFA or not should be part of a global strategy

Session 5: Human Resources and Employment in Changing Times

The four generations: Traditionalists (1922-1945), Baby Boomers (1946-1964), GenerationX (1965- 1980) and GenerationY (since 1981) all have different work related qualities and needs

Matching Gen-Y, Gen-X and Baby Boomers at the workplace as a way to mix the different cultures and to benefit from the different qualities (e.g., Gen-Y very open to new technologies)

Distinguishing strictly by age might be discriminatory

Gen-Y more interested in work-lifebalance than older generations

Gen-Y more flexible: integration of outside life into work life (use of social media like Facebook at work) and higher interest in working from home/trust-based working time

Difficult to track working hours not spent in the office

What is working time? For example, looking at your Blackberry at midnight for two minutes?

Does trust-based working time in the end lead to higher working hours and take away pay from the employee?

A high level of flexibility granted by the employer is often a question of status

Unions often against higher degree of flexibility because of potential loss of influence

Companies that adopt quickly to new technologies/trends most likely to attract the biggest talents in the future

Session 6: Open Forum to Discuss Hot Topics

People management regarding women

Problem: after childbirth women often leave the workforce => What can be done to avoid this loss of people and talents?

Create an environment that allows women to have a family and a career

Establish a counsel program for employees in parental leave (giving advice to the employee and the manager)

Encourage women to stay in touch with the company and to come back to work rather quickly

After a break of more than six months, it often becomes more difficult to successfully re-enter the workplace, thus motivate women to come back earlier and to work part-time

In Germany parental leave is possible for up to three years, in France only up to four months

Offer flexibility (individual part-time solutions, home office work)

If possible, offer childcare within the company (also good for company branding)

Look at each case individually and try to understand with what means the employee can be retained

Leading women within the company should be advocates for younger women.

Women that are promoted to VPpositions and above can function as role models

More and more men are interested in parental leave, support them as well

Support the increasing number of employees who demand flexibility in order to take care of their parents (demographic development) in the same way

Session 7: Changes in Company Culture and Organization

What is "company culture"?

Academic definition (artefacts, behavior, core values)
What employees do when nobody watches them
The first impression you have when you start in a company
How people are treated in the event of terminations
How information is being communicated within the company
What employees tell their friends about their work
Codes of conduct/codes of ethics? Often too broad and general
In companies with different divisions or sections, there might be more than one company culture

Leaders determine the culture

They are role models and have to walk the talk
Tool: positive stories spread quickly within the company (CEO serves food to employees)
Do board members eat in the main canteen with all other employees?

Tools to improve the company culture:

Anonymous and obligatory 360-degreefeedback about all managers
Managers should walk the talk
Managers take the time to listen to the problems of "normal" employees

Session 8: How to Develop a Global Leadership Team?

What are the most important qualities in a good leader/CEO?

Authenticity, realism, empathy, (long-term) vision, charisma, commitment, ability to delegate, ability to implement his vision, right personality as a whole, ability to inspire, to be a "team-server"

What are the worst qualities in a leader?

Ignorance, impatience, not being able to listen, being unreceptive, dishonesty, greed, vanity, lack of ownership, micro-management, being inflexible, indecisive, lack of self-awareness, egoism, to be "self-serving"

Nobody is perfect, and some of the most successful leaders seem to have a lot of these negative qualities

How do you teach somebody to be a good leader?

CEO coaching
360-degree feedback
In the event of conflicts: outside support coaches
Communicate critical messages in a positive way
Other leaders should be role models and should walk the talk

Annual General Meeting:

Income and Expenditure Account for 2011 was approved

Management committee members who retired from office by rotation (Duncan Abate, Stephen Asher, Sally Boyle, Allen Powley and Roselyn Sands) were re-elected for a term of three years

Re-appointment of officers: Allen Powley as Chair, Gerlind Wisskirchen as Vice-Chair, Ajay Raghavan as Secretary and Stephen Asher as Treasurer

Any other business: location for next XBHR, possibly London

Within U.S./E.U. to keep XBHR how it is now (many of the current participants would attend)
Outside U.S./E.U. to let XBHR grow and develop (fewer of the current participants, but probably more new participants)