The economy is turning, and with it, investments in HR and WF Analytics and Planning.  Conferences are better attended compared to the past couple of years, which my highly tuned analytics skills tell me is a good trend.  But the bigger picture is that IT budget purse strings are being loosened, and in ways that free up internal resources:  http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20101004-704380.html.   HR and workforce investments can now help HR professionals to focus on what has admittedly been a niche-y area within HR.  Workforce planning and analytics skills and practices are growing in demand, even ahead of any unanimously recognized economic recovery (almost there…where are the jobs?!?).

Workforce Planning and Analytics create business value and bolster business strategy.  Given the titles of presentations, the conversations between conference delegates, and the overall language coming from HR and non-HR professionals, HR is clearly more focused on strategic, operational, and financial business outcomes.  I attribute much of this to workforce analytics and planning; now, not only is HR gaining support in this space in terms of investment, it is also strengthening its credibility and strategic impact on the business it serves.  

Firms’ Analytics and Planning capabilities can mature quickly.  What we have historically seen as evolutions in organizations’ HR capabilities in these areas, sometimes taking years, is no longer necessarily the norm.  Comcast is one example of a company presenting their story of accelerating the pace of change, “getting good at” workforce reporting/analytics and driving impactful results quickly.   A common theme: the critical success factor is engagement and support from business executives, as well as strong leadership of the function. 

The Foundation is set for Strategic Workforce Planning.  It has commonly been a relatively linear process for HR to 1) get some data, 2) make sure it’s clean, 3) look at the history, 4) understand why things happen and 5) begin to get predictive with that knowledge.  After that, it would take a while to then 6) look ahead and model workforce availability against business need.  Practically speaking, HR went through a long process, taking several years, to get to workforce planning:  obtaining data and cleaning it up, focusing on reporting quality, then start and grow analytics improvements, before beginning workforce planning.  

However, I’m seeing more companies turn that maturity model on its head.  The practice of strategic workforce planning is becoming both more foundational and more sophisticated.  I have heard several stories from people who have successfully practiced workforce planning on Excel files, using a pilot approach that is less dependent on rock-solid systems and data and more reliant on strong capabilities, relationships, and organizational readiness.  Some firms even have what they consider beginner-level reporting and analytics with pretty advanced workforce planning processes.  This means to me that 1) while great analytics capability absolutely strengthens workforce planning, it’s not a requirement to get started, making inertia less of a risk to workforce planning than ever before. 

Client/vendor services and relationships are of critical importance in Analytics and Planning.   My company, SuccessFactors, provides workforce analytics and planning software as a service  – “in the cloud.”   In addition to our industry-leading workforce planning and analytics experience and expertise, we also deliver real empathy and familial commiseration to our clients.  I frequently hear of newcomers’ admiration of that genuine care – they want us to put them on cloud nine, too.   And SuccessFactors is investing significantly to emphasize these areas even more to enable us to grow while driving our clients’ success.   All of these lead me to believe that, while having bulletproof, ever-more innovative products is paramount, we’re powerfully differentiating ourselves in how we take care of our “members.”   We are on their team, we don’t succeed if they don’t succeed; and their knowledge of our commitment will bring long-term success for both sides of the relationship.

SuccessFactors Research recently surveyed 227 companies in the UK and Ireland and found that 60% of the respondents listed staff morale as the number one effect of the crashing economy, followed closely by goal alignment and achievement, which was selected by 31% of the respondents. What does this mean for business? I am sure you have noticed the title of this blog, Carrying Rocks or Building a Castle. People who are not aligned with their organization are merely carrying rocks, doing work without building the castle. Companies simply cannot afford to let their people do unproductive work, whether in a good or bad economy. Workers with low morale who are not engaged may never pick up the rock at all.

The cost of an unmotivated workforce is quite substantial. SuccessFactors Research has always maintained that a company’s ability to execute is based on three factors: motivation, talent, and organizational ability (tools, etc.) In fact, we consider these three factors to be multiplicative, so low motivation, or low engagement, directly and negatively impacts the other two factors across the company. Companies can tackle both challenges highlighted in our survey, low morale and goal alignment, with an effective goal management strategy.

Having a direct line of sight between one’s individual contribution and the company’s goals is one major driver of engagement. Goal management can help provide that line of sight, linking and cascading goals so that the worker always has a context for his or her actions.

When optimizing the workforce, potentially laying off staff, and adjusting to the changing business environment, you can’t afford to let low morale effect your organisation’s ability to execute. Ensure that goals are clearly set and managed effectively, and build strong teams committed to building the castle.

Professor of management at Drake University in Iowa, Steve Scullen, found that forced ranking, including the firing of the bottom 5% or 10%, results in an impressive 16% productivity improvement.

Companies that are able to quickly compare the performance of their people to find high and low performers have an advantage over those who cannot. Low performers actually cost the company money, so when a business manages them out, they see an immediate benefit. The opportunity cost is even higher. If high performers contribute about 5 times as much as low performers, as our friend and thought leader Dr. Peter Cappelli has found in his research, the opportunity costs is huge. Imagine how much more value the company could generate if they could replace low performers with high performers.

These kinds of optimizations are on everyone’s mind in todays slowing economic environment. SuccessFactors decided to tailor a solution for optimizing the workforce by building a tool that allows managers to stack rank their employees.

Of course stack ranking isn’t just about managing out low performers, but it is also about ensuring that you are able to find and cultivate your best talent. Those top performers who contribute 5 times as much as the low performers should be rewarded, leaders should be identified and trained. Competencies should be compared and managed across teams to ensure that the right capabilities are in place. Stack ranking is a great tool not only for optimizing your workforce, but also for building it. 

Already rich with performance management data, the SuccessFactors Stank Ranker helps managers to:

• Visually Rank Talent – Instantly identify your top-ranked players so that you can optimize your team by motivating and cultivating your best people. Give limited rewards to top employees that deserve extra recognition, or quickly identify low performers to let go when faced with tough layoff decisions.
• Go Beyond Performance Reviews –Stack Ranker expands the formal review process by letting you capture new characteristics for a more holistic assessment. For example, you can incorporate factors like criticality of the role into ranking or other criteria to serve as tie breakers.
• Assess Everyone at Once – Quickly assess your entire team across critical competencies and criteria in real time — all in one place. Side-by-side rating promotes more accurate relative assessments.

Stack Ranker was designed to help companies act now. Organizations simply cannot afford to carry the dead weight of low performers in these uncertain times. Furthermore, they need to move quickly or they will be outflanked by their competitors. Tools like Stack Ranker are critical to succeeding in today’s environment.

Everyone puts on a little weight during good times – vacations and holidays are notorious times for over eating, relaxed behavior and good feelings. Well for businesses, the vacation has come to an abrupt end. After years of easy credit and a booming housing market, the bottom has fallen out from under companies more quickly than anyone had expected, and the economic uncertainty looks as if it will continue for some time.

What will businesses do with all of the excess weight they put on during the good times, when they were content and growing with the rest of the economy? Well for those of us who have had to lose holiday pounds before, we know there are a lot of ways to get back in shape. The obvious solution is calorie restriction, cutting back on the excess – but this technique alone will leave you weaker than before you put on the weight. When the economy recovers, companies who depend on cutting calories alone will emerge weak and unable to take full advantage of the changing and improving business environment. Cutting calories alone leads to smaller muscles and a weaker body.

The best approach to losing weight is an approach that optimizes your body. Sure calories will have to be cut, but if you plan and execute carefully, you can ensure that you don’t lose any muscle. You might even emerge leaner and stronger than before. This should be the goal of every company planning layoffs and workforce adjustments for the economic downturn. To optimize the workforce in a downturn you should:

• Lay off people based on data from the performance management system, so your strongest “muscles” aren’t lost
• Find the positions within the company that are critical to your success, and ensure that successors are named for those positions
• Identify the key competencies that drive your success, and ensure that they are cultivated during the downturn, so you can emerge with strength

Companies often focus too much on cutting, or building one part of their organization. Strong arms won’t help you win a footrace. Optimizing the whole body is the best way to lose holiday weight – for companies it is the difference between remaining competitive and falling behind. Use the data in your talent and performance management system to optimize your workforce. Now more than ever companies need to be smart about managing their resources, including their talent.

Actually if you think about it, when is the best opportunity to actually go on the offense and make a change? When the going gets tough or when everything is gently pointing upwards? Companies will either be acquired, stripped of assets, or go on the offense to acquire underpriced assets when markets and demand soften up. The real deal then is obviously to make sure you quickly can get your organization aligned and executing on the new company’s direction, and that you drive the calculated synergies of a merger or acquisition home. With people being by far the biggest expense for any given business (on average 70% of operational cost) how you deal with your joined workforce must logically be the most important factor in any M&A situation.

“In any merger or acquisition, investment banks and equity analysts will provide you with a plethora of figures quantifying the synergistic strategic benefits of the union. Yet what determines whether a merger succeeds or fails is really its people.” – Jean-Pierre Garnier, ex-CEO of GlaxoSmithKline

Logically then, companies with better people processes and a serious focus on people performance should do better in a merger. To test this hypothesis, SuccessFactors research examined the performance of ten of our customers that specifically cited challenges resulting from a merger or acquisition as their business drivers for investing in SuccessFactors. The results were clear – the ten companies that leveraged SuccessFactors to drive the merger home completely outperformed their competition in 12 month revenue growth, 12 month income growth, return on equity and price to book ratio. These mergers were not just successful on paper, they worked in the real world.

Download the SuccessFactors Research Data Sheet: Mergers & Acquisitions to see just how successful our customers are and how they are winning in these uncertain economic times.