On September 9, 2015, Tom Haak of the HR Trend Institute gave a lecture to 2nd year students of International Business Administration at the University of Amsterdam (VU). The lecture was part of the course on HRM and Organizational Behavior.

1. From intuitive to data driven/
evidence based HR
Guest lecture at VU/ HRM & OB
Tom Haak
9 September 2015

2. Content
1. My background in HR
2. Trends
3. Evidence based HR?
4. Some final remarks

3. Part 1: my background in HR

4. My background in HR

5. Philips (CE)
Challenge:
• Business: heavy competition Japan/ restructuring
• HR: How can we attract and retain talent when we are
downsizing dramatically
Interventions:
• Global program for high potentials, focusing on interactions with
clients and top

6. KPMG
Challenge:
• Business: from specialist to broad advisor
• HR: How do we select and develop partners with the right
profile
Interventions:
• Competency grid, fom graduate to partner
• Development center for managers

7. Aon
Challenge:
• Business: many aquisitions, how do we make 1+1=3?
• HR: How can we align leadership and business development?
Interventions:
• Bonus system with joint business as criteria
• Worldwide leadership meeting

8. Arcadis
Challenge:
• Business: from Dutch multinational to global company
• HR: Feeling part of global company while working locally
Interventions:
• Focus on global top 200 key positions
• Global Shapers program

9. HR Trend Institute
• Detecting, following and encouraging trends in the people/
organization domain
• Supporting organizations to use the trends in a creative and
innovative way
• Sharing insights

10. Crunchr
• An online solution for HR reporting and
people analytics
• Consolidates and validates available
data from HR inforamation systems
and Excel sheets across all business
units and countries
Challenge: Sell!

11. The HR Agenda
A. What is the
strategy of the
organization?
A’. What
are the
current
issues?
B. What are the
capabilities need to
strengthened?
• Leadership
• Technical/Functional
• Operational
C. What is the required
culture, to avoid issues
and to be successful?
D. What is
the gap with
the current
situation?
Clever use of
People
Analytics
E. What are the
priorities?
What is the plan?
• Focus!
• Preference for high impact/
low effort initiatives
F. What capabilities and
what organisation are
needed in HR to
implement the plan?
• Mission/ vision
• Roles & responsibilities
• External partners
• Program/ project mgt
• Communication
• Measurement
Recruitment/ Selection
Staffing/ Succession
Mgt
Training/ Development
Talent Development
Performance Man
Compensation &
Benefits
Internal
communication
HR Trend
Scan
11

12. HR Agenda simplified
Gap
Strategy
Culture Capabilities
HR Interventions

13. Some possible interventions
Recruitment/
Selection
Staffing/
Succession Mgt
Training/
Development
Talent
Development
Performance
Man
Compensation
& Benefits
Internal
communication
Organisational
design
Do nothing!
Health & Safety Compliance

14. Part 2: overview of trends

15. 9 trend
areas
Short desciption
From hierarchy to network / from closed to open
The invasion of smart tech
Globalisation/ Localisation
From X to Y to Z: more generations in the workforce
Making fun is serious business
Purpose before pecunia
Increasing speed: fast eats slow
From Big Bang change programs to small experiments
From intuitive HR to evidence/ fact based HR
Version 2.0 | copyright HR Trend Institute

16. Kotter: Accelerate
16

18. Enterprise Behavioral Matching

19. A computer with a roof (“The Edge”)

20. DKV: Artificial Intelligence in the
boardroom
20

21. Google NL
21

22. Cool Blue: Office Tour
22

23. 23

25. Scrum
25

26. The Vitesse example

27. Part 3: evidence based people operations?
Summary: • Actions often more based on intuition
than facts
• Scientific knowledge very slowly
applied

28. Recruitment & selection
What we know ……
• Interview is a poor selection instrument
• People overestimate their own capabilities
• Halo effect (e.g. nice looking = intelligent)
What we do….

29. Accenture Sweden: Diversity

30. Network
Analysis

31. Gamification in recruitment: Wasabi Waiter
31

32. Reward
What we know ……
• People are motivated by more than money
• Bonus systems hardly ever have the required effect
• Individual preferences waht people find important in work cary
greatly
What we do….

33. Arcadis Global Shapers Badges

34. Innovation
What we know ……
• Innovation is difficult to plan
• Is multidisciplinary
What we do….

35. Zappos HQ in
downtown Las Vegas
“Casual Colision”
35

36. Adobe Kick Box
36

37. Learning
What we know ……
• People learn most on the job
• Reflection is critical for learning
• People have different learning styles
What we do….

38. At AMAZON
meetings
start with
30 minutes
silence

40. Communication
What we know ……
• One picture tells more than 1000 words
• Messages from people close to you whom you trust are more
credible
• What people say is not always what they will do
What we do….

41. Joy & pride
Muse: no survey

42. Health & Safety
What we know ……
• Sitting is unhealthy
• Difficult to concentrate longer than 25 minutes
What we do….

43. Sitting is the new smoking
Visser, Rietveld
& Rietveld

45. Some final remarks

46. Human nature does not change (so fast)
What are people looking for?
• Security
• A sense of belonging
• Clear goals
• Being heard
• Challenges
• Success
• Support from the top
• Attention
• ……..
• ……..

47. Individualisation
• Not: one size fits all
• Big Data enables individualisation
• HR using marketing techniques

48. Final: questions?

49. Success!
Twitter: @tomwhaak, @hrtrendinst
Website: hrtrendinstitute.com