I will remember the HR360 European Summit that just finished in Vienna by this sentence from Scott McArthur, Special Guest Speaker. It was a place to hear many great speakers and approaches companies do, interesting ideas and concepts, lot of inspiring individuals to network with.

I will remember the HR360 European Summit that just finished in Vienna by this sentence from Scott McArthur, Special Guest Speaker. It was a place to hear many great speakers and approaches companies do, interesting ideas and concepts, lot of inspiring individuals to network with. My highlights and takeaways can be grouped into few areas.

We are still reassuring to ourselves that we are needed.

HR as function is “still” in transformation. According to Mercer study, in 2008, 2012 and 2018, HRBPs spend 27% on administrative tasks. Only 25% of business gets the transformations right. We heard many times the question “do we need HR?”. I would rather translate it into “what kind of HR is needed?”. Honestly, I was a bit surprised, that we are still talking about “getting the seat on the table”. It seems to me we struggle with our own existence, seems like we need to convince ourselves that we are needed. And what seems to be needed is that we do more of “human” focus from our title? What do humans in the organizations, in role of leaders or employees need from us? How about some gardening?

Reality is a marathon.

We are on the road and approaching the end of the city with wide, non-discovered natural beauties in front of us: new ways of working, gig economy, developing and sharing talents in the eco system of companies, from diversity measurements to focusing in diversity and inclusion on eliminating the blockages and barriers, etc. My new HR sparring partner Mirjana articulated it well “do we retain people only for our company or we create experience for them to grow?”. I haven’t heard that any HRIS is working in the way organizations want. The reality is that all the tree shadows get the shapes of “digital, AI, robotics”, you name it. Where is the gardener?

And the employees want…

Personalized approach, strong sense of purpose, meaningful experience, the ones that gets their attention and keeps it, gets the talents! Uau… THE Key Performance Indicator should be “time well spend” as Mr McArthur says. Employees want a gardener, mentor, “to learn from observing” as the Olympic gold medal swimmer Mark Foster says, who takes care and prepares the conditions for people to grow, develop and flourish. A gardener!

Amazon Choice

I am still under huge influence and admiration for the Amazon Choice program. The program offers opportunities for entry level employees after 1 year of service to get trained into the new profession. Trainings are developed to answer the needs of the local labour market shortages, somewhere nurses, elsewhere network engineers. It gives opportunity for Amazon employees to go back to school and get the career they really want within the company or preparing them for the interview with partner companies. Story of social impact, story about gardening and nurturing personalized approach of the people. Well done Amazon!

The insights are there and reality check pulses. I want to continue learning the art of gardening.