The Simplification of Work: What can HR and business leaders do to make work more simple, enjoyable, and productive?

Copyright © 2015 Deloitte Development LLC. All rights reserved.1 The Simplification of Work Copyright © 2015 Deloitte Development LLC. All rights reserved.
2015 Global Human Capital Trends
The Simplification
of work
Josh Bersin
Principal and Founder
Bersin by Deloitte
July 2015

Copyright © 2015 Deloitte Development LLC. All rights reserved.2 The Simplification of Work
3,300+
Business and
HR leaders
106countries
One of the largest-ever
longitudinal global talent studies
Unless otherwise cited, all data referenced in this presentation is from the
Global Human Capital Trends 2015 survey.
Global Human Capital Trends 2015

Global Human Capital Trends 2015
LEADERSHIP
Why a perennial issue?
LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT
Into the spotlight
CULTURE AND ENGAGEMENT
The naked organization
PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT
The secret ingredient
WORKFORCE ON DEMAND
Are you ready?
SIMPLIFICATION OF WORK
The coming revolution
REINVENTING HR
An extreme makeover
HR AND PEOPLE ANALYTICS
Stuck in neutral
PEOPLE DATA EVERYWHERE
Bringing the outside in
MACHINES AS TALENT
Collaboration, not competition

Culture and engagement
Leadership gaps
Learning and development
HR Skills and capability
87%
86%
86%
80%
% VERY
IMPORTANT
50%
51%
40%
39%
35%
34%
29%
26%
20%
14%
Importance of Trends to Business
Percent Rating Trend Important
Workforce capability
Performance management
HR and people analytics
Simplifying work
Machines as talent
People data everywhere
71%
57%
52%
80%
75%
75%

SIMPLIFICATION OF WORK
The coming revolution
see need to
simplify work;
25% say
need is very
important
75%
Redesign
work to focus
on what matters
Technology
and
globalization
creating
overwhelmed
employees
2014:
“The Overwhelmed Employee”
2015:
“The Simplification of Work”

The Problem

The Overwhelmed Employee
Overload is Everywhere
The average mobile
phone user checks
their device 150
times a day.
40% of the US
population
believes it is
impossible to
succeed at work
and have a
balanced family
life.
The “average” US
worker works 47
hours and 49%
work 50 hours or
more per week,
with 20% at 60+
hours per week
The “average” US
worker now
spends 25% of
their day reading
or answering
emails
More than 70% of
all companies rate
their business
“highly complex”
or “complex” for
employees.
Fewer than 16% of
companies have a
program to
“simplify work” or
help employees
deal with stress.
Sources: Deloitte Human Capital Trends 2014 and 2015

Productivity is Suffering – Is Technology Helping?
US Productivity Last Ten Years
1 billion
Smartphones
i-Phone
Launched
100 Million
Twitter users

How did we get here?
What Causes Complexity?
Complexity
Structural
Mitosis
Management
Behavior
Product
Service
Proliferation
Process
Evolution
From: “Simply Effective”,
by Ron Ashkenas

Complexity Hurts – Cognitive Overload
Wasted Time
Knowledge Workers spend 41%
of their time on discretionary
activities that offer little personal
satisfaction because they make
us feel busy and we can get
them done.
Harvard Business Review, 12/24/2013.
A Change in Ethos
US Has entered “middle age:” The “psychological center of gravity”
for society as a whole shifted into midlife and beyond. This silent
passage marked a gradual but significant transformation of the
zeitgeist toward midlife values such as caring and compassion, a
greater desire for meaning and purpose, and concern.
Mackey, John; Sisodia, Rajendra (2012-12-25). Conscious Capitalism:
Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business
Lost Energy
74% of employees are experiencing a personal
energy crisis. Need to define “high engagement” to
“sustainable engagement” Google has trained
6,900 people in “people energy”
“The Energy Project” Tony Schwartz.
Stress and Health Issues
In Germany 40% of workers say their stress
levels have gone up in the last two years. In
China the number is 75%.
Thrive, by Arianna Huffington

Work-Life Balance
Some Workers Have Given Up
40% of workers now
believe that…
“…in today's economy, it's not possible
for most people to succeed at work,
make a good living, and have enough
time to contribute to their family and
their community”
Allstate National Worker Poll, Heartland Monitor,
960 respondents in white collar and blue collar positions, 10/2014

Glassdoor ratings of employer recommendations — 200,000+
Engagement a global challenge
Average
3.1
What are
these
companies
doing??

Explosion in “Mindful” Solutions

• “Free” file sharing and “Free”
collaboration software that is very
easy to use
– Over 200 million users now
(Dropbox)
– 260,000 new users per month
(Slack)
• No training required
• Free, mobile enabled from day 1
• Elegant simple user interface
• Companies hit over $1 Billion in
valuation in 3-5 years
Slack, Dropbox, Snapchat
“Simple” Apps Are the Most Ueful

The Simply Irresistible Organization®
What we have learned: an integrated approach is key
Meaningful work
Great
management
Fantastic
environment
Growth
opportunity
Trust in
leadership
Autonomy Agile goal setting
(i.e. OKR)
Flexible, humane
work environment
Facilitated talent
mobility
Mission and
purpose
Selection to fit Coaching and
feedback
Recognition rich
culture
Career growth in
many paths
Investment in
people, trust
Small teams Leadership
development
Open flexible work
spaces
Self and formal
development
Transparency and
communication
Time for slack Modernized
performance
management
Inclusive, diverse
culture
High impact
learning culture
Inspiration

What to do?

Are We Addressing It? Not yet.
Do you have a program to reduce complexity in your
organization?
26%
40%
21%
10%
2%
Excellent
multi-year effort
2%
Good
Progress being
made 26%
Fair
Some success, not
moving fast enough
40%
Poor
No progress
21%
Nothing at all
10%

What is HR’s Role?
1. Organization Design and Small Teams
2. Rationalize and simplify content and programs
3. Implement Design Thinking and User Focus
4. Redesign HR and L&D for Scale and Efficiency
5. Make Work Easier: Culture of Flexibility, Freedom, and Trust
Five Things We’ve Learned So Far

Organization Design
Organizational
• Prune layers, increase spans of control
• Differentiate between “Core” and
“Context” (Geoffrey Moore)
• Consolidate common services
Team Centric
• Give Employees Broader Roles
• Facilitate Coordination, not Structure
• Open Communication and Teamwork
• Design around Strategy, not People
1. Organizational Design for Agility

Rationalize Programs and Content
2. Do Regular Portfolio Analysis
Run the Business WIN in the Market
Custom
To You
Off the
Shelf
IT Training
Desktop Skills
General Management Skills
Project Management
Sales Techniques
Customer Service Techniques
ERP Rollout
Call Center Application Training
Product Introduction
Your Secret Sauce
Business Critical
Skills, Competencies,
And processes for
Your company
40%
10% 20%
30%
Focus Here
Outsource
Training Investment Model®
“The Blended Learning Book,” by Josh Bersin

People Cannot Absorb All We Give Them
Typical Learning Portfolio: Lots of Waste
80% of utilization use 1% of
the learning programs
The “Long Tail” of Content Usage in Training

Approaches to Consider
3. Apply Design Thinking to HR

Organization Design
Onboarding and Transition Management
DETERMINE DISCOVER DESIGN & TEST DELIVER
The 4Ds methodology frames the way design is done at Telstra. It’s inspired by the best design methodologies from
leading institutions around the world, such as Stanford’s d.school, IDEO, and the UK Design Council.
We clarify the question to
make sure that we are
tackling the right problem
so we an create an action
plan.
We build empathy for the
people we are designing
for and draw inspiration.
We synthesis what we
learn to prepare for
generating new ideas.
We implement design and
recommendations and
monitor performance to
find opportunities for
improvement.
We brainstorm ideas to
think ‘big’ without
constraints. We build
prototypes to bring ideas
so we can learn how to
improve and refine our
concepts.

Prepare & Kick-off
• Prepare for kick-off
workshop
• Conduct 1 day
workshop to frame
the problem
• Align HR strategy and
business problem
• NB: placeholder
invitations to
Determine workshop
to be sent 2 weeks
prior
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 9
Stage
Week
Key
milestones
Key activities
People and
Teams
Determining
workshop
Ideation
workshop Final showcase
Synthesis
• Affinity
diagramming
• Current state
journey mapping
• Insight generation
• Identification of pain
points
Idea Generation
• Brainstorming
• How might we?
• Concept development
• Assumption testing
• What should the future
state employee
experience look like?
• Create draft
aspirational journeys
DETERMINE:
CLARIFY
THE QUESTION
EXPLORE:
BUILD EMPATHY FOR OUR KEY CONSTITUENTS
SYNTHESISE:
UNCOVER MEANING
CREATE:
EXPLORE OPPORTUNITIES & ITERATE OUR VISION
DETERMINE DISCOVER DESIGN & TEST
HR
SME
Design
vendor
Design
Practice
Team structure that
invites co-design
Create a blended team of
consultants, Telstra Design
Practice, platform vendors and
peripheral stakeholders.
Research prep
• Recruit participants
• Prepare research
tools and guides
• Conduct desktop
research (e.g., Bersin
& leading practice)
• Design survey to
capture current
state for new
employees
• Create Yammer
‘focus group’ (across
borders, teams and
levels) to help with
research, design &
testing
Conduct research
• 10 x ‘Ride along’
session with new
employees
• 20 1-on-1 interviews
with employees
• 2 x HR workshops
• 2 x Manager workshops
• 3 x focus group
sessions with overseas
offices
• Review existing data
(e.g., employee
satisfaction, exit
interviews)
Recommendations,
Prioritisation &
Testing
• Refine end state
employee experience
blueprint
• Document findings &
prioritised
recommendations
• 5 x employee validation
sessions
• 5 x Manager validation
sessions
• Script and produce 2-3
min video
Testing prep
• Recruit participants
13+
Socialisation and
implementation
• Socialisation and rollout
of recommendations
[post this project]
• Continued refinement of
the employee
experience vision [post
this project]
• Rerun new employee
sentiment survey in
FY15
Deliverables &
outcomes
• Agreed problem
statement (FQ)
• Alignment across
stakeholder group
• Research plan
• Desktop research
findings summary
• Employee survey
• Yammer group
• Raw research findings • Current-state journey
maps
• Pain points identified
• Design & experience
hypotheses to test
• Multiple options
• Draft aspirational
journeys
• Employee experience
blueprint
• Findings and
recommendations
(prioritised)
• Short video
Benefits
• Stakeholder buy in
• Framed question to
ensure we are
addressing the right
problem
• Effective planning for
research
• Baseline current state
• Deep understanding of
the people we are
designing for
• Better understanding of
the current challenges
• Identification of
‘opportunities to
delight’ and to drive
advocacy
• Exploration of new
ways to meet
employee needs
8 10 11APR 7 12
X n X n X n X n
Project scope checkpoint

Design Thinking
Simplifying Performance Management
Coaching for
Development
Talent
Decisions
Performance
Improvement
Legal
Documents
Employee
Motivation
Compensation
Performance
Feedback
PERFORMANCE
MANAGEMENT
Coaching for
Development
Talent
Decisions
Performance
Improvement
Legal
Documents
Employee
Motivation
Compensation
Performance
Feedback
PERFORMANCE
MANAGEMENT
Kelly Services
Source: “Getting Away from the Score:
Creating Better Ongoing Performance
Feedback,” Bersin & Associates, 2012.
Adobe: “New PM process has reduced attrition by 30%
year over year and by over 50% during high turnover
period. It has also doubled involuntary turnover – people
are opting out.”

Design THinking
Mobile Self Service and Support CBA

Small to Mid Sized
Organization
BusinessReachandImpactEvolution of HR Structure
4. Centralize and Rationalize HR and L&D
Rationalized
HR Service
Delivery
Centralized
HR
“Anarchy”
Uncoordinated
HR staffs, tools, vendors,
consultants
Large Global
Organization
Optimized
Business-
Integrated
HR
“Rationalized”
Efficient
Standard platforms
Roles defined
Service delivery optimized
Focus: Platforms, efficiency,
service delivery, role clarity
“Business Optimized”
Federated: Coordinated
Intelligent at the end nodes
Highly trained and empowered HR
partners
External intelligence and networks of
expertise
Focus: Talent, Leadership,
Management, Global Localization
Best Practices
Identification
Here

Simplifying HR and L&D
Framework for Simplification
Locally
Specific
Globally
Consistent
Transactional Consultative
“Business
Partners”
housed in or
close to the
business
Centers of
Expertise, for
example, change
management
methods,
facilitators,
training, best
practices, etc.
Examples
include reports
processing, data
entry, records
Shared Services,
for example,
surveys,
analytics
services

Standards and Frameworks
Standardize Programs, Tools, Vendors
• Stop proliferation of tools,
vendors, and program designs
• Create a “methods and tools”
group that does research
internally and externally for
best practices
• Lock down spending on local
platforms, vendors, and tools
wherever possible

Rationalization of Learning
We Often Simplify L&D
Organization Curriculum TechnologyVendors
 Number of L&D FTEs
 Payroll and benefits
 Roles, responsibilities
 Activity allocation
 Organization structure
 Business alignment
 Budget and financial
management
 Reporting
 Governance
 Processes
 LMS curricula
 Curriculum types
 Number of courses
 Active/inactive status
 Course hours
 Course enrollments
 Course topics
 Delivery methods
 Courses not in LMS
 LMS platforms
 Design and development
tools
 Content management
systems
 Evaluation software
 Technology vendors
 Technology spend
 Usage
 Administration
 Maintenance
 Number of vendors
 Types of vendors
 Services provided
 Vendor spend
 Use of preferred vendors
 Vendor selection
processes
 Vendor management
processes
Scale, structure, associated
revenue and resources used
for learning activity
Funding model, charging model (internal and to owners) and assessment of value
Learning technology
effectiveness and delivery
channel effectiveness
Learning effectiveness & impact (both tangible and perception)
Expectations of learning across
Franchise/Managed/Corporate
groups including owners

COE or Service Centers
Centralize and Offload Repetitive Work
The Problem:
Repetitive tasks we all have to do, can
these be “insourced” to a service center
or shared service?
Solution:
• Graphic design
• Statistics
• Data cleanup
Key to Success:
• Consulting mindset
• Design thinking
• Audience analysis
• Design around strategy, not people

Major Transportation Company
• Shift from legacy HR system to new
SAP SuccessFactors platform
• CEO-driven program, stakeholders
include all major business leaders
• Business change leader and head
of HR Services ran the project
• 100+ Page “Manifesto” on what we
will and will not change
• No process or systems changes
without review
Simplifying Technology Implementation

Redefine Roles for Simplicity
CLO owns Employee Engagement,
Communication, and Culture

Work-Life Balance
5. Help Employees Cope
Culture of Balance: At Boston Consulting
Group, if you work more than 60 hours a week for
5 weeks, a "Red Zone Report" will be issued so
that managers can make adjustments. Deloitte
now has “PTO Etiquette” to encourage people to
take time off and disconnect from work.
Flexibility and Rest: At Etsy workers
receive a stipend to use on their workstations,
which are handmade, many in Etsy's woodshop.
The company also has a "breathing room," which
Vice President Matt Stinchcomb describes as "a
digital device-free room with meditation
cushions." (WSJ 11/2014)
Health, Wellness Systems:
Johnson & Johnson has a program called
"Energy for Performance in Life," which teaches
employees not just how to optimize their
productivity at work, but also at home.
Employee participation is up to 90 percent.
Inc Magazine, 4/13/2014
Mindfulness Programs awake@intel
Participants report a 20% decrease in
experiencing stress and feeling overwhelmed,
30% increase in overall happiness and wellbeing,
and 20% increase in new ideas and insights,
mental clarity, creativity, the ability to focus, the
quality of relationships at work and the level of
engagement in meetings, projects and
collaboration efforts
Remote Work Options: “64% of small businesses
said that providing remote work options helped them
keep key employees” and these companies had 12%
more satisfaction and 40% higher rates of innovation.
32% innovative vs. 40%, and 76% high performance vs.
71%.
Inc. Entrepreneur Survey, 2/7/2014
Workplace Design: Gensler 2013 US
workforce study 2,035 employees across 10
industries found that companies which grant
employees a choice in how they work grew 4X
faster and had 1/3 the turnover rate.

Shift to Flexible: Open and Private
• Balanced workplace design
– Open easy collaboration
– Privacy also available
• Varies by culture
– Germany – 320 sq ft
– US – 190 sq ft
– China, India – 50-70 sq ft.
• Need for “stimulus control” and
“managed privacy” at work
• Office culture shapes design
Workspace Design

Make Work Simpler
• Policies to reduce emails at
nights and weekends
• No email on vacation (“PTO
Etiquette”)
• Management and leadership
set an example
• Fair Labor Standards Act
may raise overtime eligibility
to $50,000 per year, which
could make email an
“overtime” activity
Email Curfews

Focus on Culture, not Process and Compliance
Leadership and Culture trump process
Danny Wegman of Wegmans: “Things get
in the way of letting people be human.
Quarterly reports and business schools. Let
people do the right thing.”
Inc. Magazine, 4/2014
Deloitte Australia research shows that
financial services companies with fewer
compliance programs but greater “culture”
are 30-40% more efficient and compliant.
Terri Kelly CEO of WL Gore
“When there’s no trust you
spend endless time in meetings.
You have to build relationships –
once you invest the time to get
to know each other and
understand their perspective,
you save huge amounts of time.
Inc. Magazine 4/2014
Nordstrom trusts people.
You can’t teach a culture,
you have to live it. Role
modeling is what creates
culture.
Toyota: When you give people the
andon cord they first pull it but later
they just “fix the problem.”
Empowerment creates pride.

GE Simplification Strategy
Top to Bottom Approach
The problem:
Innovation, complexity, productivity, and
growth
Solution:
• Reduce spans and layers
• Centralize shared services
• Revamp performance management
• Re-train and coach managers
• Give employees freedom to “skip the
meeting” and spend time with
customers
• “Lean Startup” principles for product
design through all business functions

SAP
SAP Transformation of HR and L&D
The problem:
Highly decentralized structure,
duplicative processes and training
programs, innovation and cloud
computing strategy needed
Solution:
• Board level approval for L&D and HR
transformation
• Rationalize and centralize HR
function and programs
• Create “federated model” for L&D,
shared infrastructure and tools
• Redefine roles of L&D and HR
throughout

Redefining HR
Your New Role: Make Life Better

Conclusion: HR Has Work to Do
Take Ownership for this Issue
1. Organization design and
small teams
2. Rationalize and simplify
content and programs
3. Implement Design Thinking
and User Focus
4. Redesign HR and L&D for
Scale and Efficiency
5. Create Culture of Flexibility,
Freedom, and Trust
6. … and remember, our job is
to make work better, not
harder!

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