In this edition of HR News You Can Use we cover three interesting set of facts that have a major impact on the workplace today.
First, it is interesting to note that Boyden reports that the CHRO role at large organizations has evolved to where it now is seen as imperative to have them be a strategic partner.
Second, we look at measuring the quality of hire. How many firms do this and what metrics do they use?
Last, we look at one of our favorite topics – open office space. Geoffrey James from Inc. magazine provides nine reasons why open office space should be eliminated
The Strategic Ascension Of The CHRO
From the Boyden white paper The Rise Of The CHRO
“The ‘war for talent’ will continue to intensify. CHROs are key drivers to ensure the right strategic environment to maximize talent motivation. Conversely, companies that do not have HR executives at the C-level will face serious strategic economic and cultural problems. It’s imperative for CEOs to reshape their HR function as well as treat their HR executives as equal partners.”
- Jörg Kasten, Chairman of Boyden and Managing Partner, Germany
The CHRO’s journey has been longer and more complex than that of many of their C-level peers. Perhaps this explains the robust depth and breadth of literature available on the changing role of the CHRO and the human resources function.
There are many reasons why, in the current hiring and economic environment, the CHRO is a central and indispensable player. Increasingly, as intellectual capital and the “human element” become the biggest factors by which companies differentiate themselves, attracting and retaining top talent and cultivating human capital has become one of the highest priorities for senior leaders. Aside from the need to build and maintain strong teams, eliminating time and resource waste on onboarding and off-boarding activities goes a long way toward cutting costs and maximizing profits.
Measuring The Quality Of A Hire
In the November SHRM Magazine, there was research infographic that showed that only 23% of employers measure the quality of hire, a metric that has been shown to be critical to understanding the effectiveness of an organization’s hiring process.
The five most common measures used were:
- On the job performance as rated by the hiring manager
- Retention rate
- Performance appraisal scores
- Relationship between interview and performance
- Customer service score
Open Office Space – Not Such A Great Idea
It has been my belief that the open office concept was a bad idea. From its original concept as an innovative workspace that fosters collaboration to today’s cubicle farms, the open office space has been a constant source of frustration and anxiety for employees. In a recent Inc. magazine, Geoffrey James provides a counter-narrative on why open office space is a bad idea.
Open-plan offices (large open spaces, shared work areas, and few private offices) are all the rage. In fact, approximately 70 percent of all offices now have an open floor plan.
If you're thinking about making the leap, though, you might want to think again, because, despite their popularity, open-plan offices create huge problems.
And if you're stuck in an open-plan office, you might consider finding more traditional digs, because, well, here's the straight skinny:
- They decrease productivity.
Contrary to popular belief, open offices don't increase collaboration or make people more productive. An Exeter University study showed they create a 32 percent drop in "workers' well-being" and 15 percent reduction in productivity.
- They make employees miserable.
A study of 10,000 workers funded by office furniture giant Steelcase revealed that "95 percent said working privately was important to them, but only 41 percent said they could do so, and 31 percent had to leave the office to get work completed."
- They create time-consuming distractions.
Office workers lose an average of 86 minutes per day due to distractions associated with open-plan offices. As a result, many employees are "unmotivated, unproductive, and overly stressed," according to the study funded by Steelcase.
- They make employees sick.
A study at Queensland University of Technology's Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation found that working in environments without offices "caus[es] high levels of stress, conflict, high blood pressure, and a high staff turnover."
- They result in more sick days.
Not surprisingly, employees in open-plan offices take more sick days. According to The New Yorker, companies with open-plan offices can expect employees to take a whopping 62 percent more sick leave.
- They communicate a lack of trust.
People aren't stupid. They know that behind the hip-sounding biz-blab about "collaborative work areas" lies the perennial desire of the paranoid, insecure micro-manager to peer over every worker's shoulder at a moment's notice.
- They create vast political turmoil.
In open-plan environments, there are always a handful of private offices for the bigwigs. Because everyone hates the open plan, the struggle over who gets a "real office" is cutthroat, creating unnecessary bad blood and wounded egos.
- They blunt your highly-paid brainpower.
According to one study, "senior engineers, bankers, and people working in financial services...found the open-plan environment challenging, particularly when focusing on complex tasks like analyzing figures or working on documents."
- They cost MORE than private offices.
Here's the real kicker. As I pointed out in a recent post on LinkedIn, open-plan offices are so incredibly destructive to productivity that they're a net huge loss, even in areas where office space is pricey
