HRComputes Spring 2020 Newsletter

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View this email in your browser Be safe, be healthy, stay calm! Honored to be a Beacon ICON Award Winner On March 11th at the Normandy Farms, Silos Ballroom, Beacon members gathered to honor three award winners with the Beacon ICON Award for their impact on women in leadership. The winners were Natasha Andrews, Director of Programs and Community Engagement at Girls Inc., Alyssa Budraitis, Founder and Owner, Beautiful Linens, and Kristina Kohl, Managing Principal of HRComputes. Each honoree had the opportunity to share her own journey and story on facilitating women in leadership. All of the stories were authentic and impactful. Hearing from each of the award winners was very moving.  Click here to read Kristina’s speech. Diversity of Thought Drives Innovation Recently, Kristina was a guest speaker at the Ultimate Women in Business Summit in NYC speaking on Building a Socially Responsible Organization. While attending, she had the opportunity to hear Cara Pelletier, Director of Diversity, Equality & Belonging, Ultimate Software speak on Building a Culture of Belonging. Her presentation focused on creating a culture of belonging rather than one of inclusion. As Cara says, “You don’t need an invitation, you already belong” It is about bringing your authentic self to work and feeling like you really belong there. In order to have a diverse workforce, you need to create a culture of belonging. As we think about diversity and its impact on innovation, we need to think about the many levels of diversity in our organizations. We have identity diversity, which reflects attributes that are more visible (race, gender, etc.) and we have cognitive diversity, which reflects how we see the world and think about things. A recent HBR article adds a third, experiential diversity reflecting how our affinities, hobbies, and abilities shape us.  Each of these types of diversity is impactful in driving innovation. https://hbr.org/2018/05/the-3-types-of-diversity-that-shape-our-identities When we talk about work, where is most work happening? Work happens in teams and teams have meetings. So, how can we make meetings more effective in creating an environment for a diversity of thought to drive innovation? Click here for more insight! Spotlight on Technology Ceridian In early March, before the madness, Morris attended the Ceridian Dayforce Advisory meeting, an annual gathering of consultants, senior executives, and techies.  HRComputes has been attending for 3 years since its inception.  The point of the meeting is to hear the latest and greatest about the product, the strategy for what comes next and how to best partner with Ceridian. One of the most important statements made by a senior exec was that “80% of HCM clients use only 30% of the functionality of the system”!  With the emphasis of so many projects on getting Core HR and Payroll up and running in a short amount of time, so much functionality gets left un or under implemented.  Many of the “bright and shiny objects” and the leading-edge range of capabilities – many of the things one sees in a demo and often the reasons for the purchase decision – do not make an impact on the organization.  The consensus on how to fix the issue was to increase client-side support, expand on change management and include a budget for technology adoption and communications techniques.  All services, by the way, that we excel in providing! To read more about the Advisory Summit click here! Kronos-UltimateSoftware Merger The Kronos-UltimateSoftware merger made the news recently.  In our view, with both companies having the same Private Equity owner, it seems like it was only a matter of time.  We hope that the new company will bring to market the best of both products, technology and positive culture.  We look forward to hearing more when we attend the UltimateSoftware Advisory Council meeting in May!  Stay tuned! Honors, Awards, Board Appointments Kristina Kohl Beacon 2020 ICON Award Winner Kristina Kohl named to Wharton Alumni Club of NJ Board of Directors Morris Yankell named to Beacon Networking for Life Board of Directors Kristina Kohl named to SJ BIZ 2020 Women to Watch – click here for more on this award and to read Kristina’s answer to “What’s the best business advice you were ever given or gave to someone else?” Check out our website  www.hrcomputes.com Connect with us at: Kristina Kohl, Managing Principal  kris@hrcomputes.com Morris Yankell, Principal  morris@hrcomputes.com Follow us on Twitter: Kris    Morris  Please stay in, virtual, touch!. Copyright © 2020  HRComputes Email us with questions or comments: Kris@HRComputes.com or Morris@HRComputes.com Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

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Diversity of Thought Drives Innovation

I recently was a guest speaker at the Ultimate Women in Business Summit in NYC speaking on Building a Socially Responsible Organization. While attending, I had the opportunity to hear Cara Pelletier, Director of Diversity, Equality & Belonging, Ultimate Software speak on Building a Culture of Belonging. Her presentation focused on creating a culture of belonging rather than one of inclusion. As Cara says, “You don’t need an invitation, you already belong” It is about bringing your authentic self to work and feeling like you really belong there. In order to have a diverse workforce, you need to create a culture of belonging.

As we think about diversity and its impact on innovation, we need to think about the many levels of diversity in our organizations. We have identity diversity, which reflect attributes that are more visible (race, gender, etc.) and we have cognitive diversity, which reflects how we see the world and think about things. A recent HBR article adds a third, experiential diversity reflecting how our affinities, hobbies, and abilities shape us.  Each of these types of diversity is impactful in driving innovation. https://hbr.org/2018/05/the-3-types-of-diversity-that-shape-our-identities

 When we talk about work, where is most work happening? Work happens in teams and teams have meetings. So, how can we make meetings more effective in creating an environment for a diversity of thought to drive innovation. The following is the list of ideas presented by Cara Pelletier to promote diversity of thought in a team environment:

1.     Set the Stage

2.     Set Expectations

3.     Create Psychological Safety

4.     Encourage Speaking Freely

5.     Speak Up

In setting the stage, think about the physical space such as how the tables and chairs are arranged. Are you unintentionally creating a physical space that suggests some voices matter more than others? Are you creating a collaborative meeting agenda and sharing it in advance? Using sharing document tools and encouraging the team to pose questions in advance encourages participation and hearing from diverse voices .

Establish team participation expectations. If you have been invited to the meeting, you are expected to participate. Set up a practice of taking turns to allow all voices to be heard during a meeting. Create an environment of psychological safety by ensuring that all participants are fully present. Agree that meeting is device free. Encourage listening. Google found that creating psychological safety was the most important attribute of highly successful teams. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/magazine/what-google-learned-from-its-quest-to-build-the-perfect-team.html

If you really want new ideas, you need to encourage all team members to speak freely and to disagree even with the boss. Pose questions to promote thought such as:

1.     What is missing?

2.     What might go wrong?

3.     Why might this blow up?

4.     Who has an alternative idea?

5.     Who is willing to bet $1,000 that the idea will succeed?

6.     What has worked in a similar situation?

Speak up to recognize and acknowledge contributions. Ask if we have heard from everyone in the room. Redirect questions to the most qualified Subject Matter Expert (SME). Speak up if there are interruptions, if someone is consistently asked to perform an administrative task, and  if someone’s voice is being diminished.

Next time you are setting up a meeting, take the time to plan the setting and agenda and begin the process of creating and enforcing group rules. I bet you will begin to get more ideas and new perspectives promoting a diversity of thought to drive innovation.