It’s just not evenly distributed yet. And that is the awful truth. There are organizations that are light years ahead in their practices and then there are organizations that are stuck in the 60’s. Not everyone is in the same place on the curve.
Take technology for example. We’ve been talking about it for as long as I can remember. Yet only a few organizations show up as great adopters. Let’s face it – tech, like everything else, has an entry barrier. The barrier can be in the form of appropriate funds (tech isn’t cheap), mindset change, leadership support, infrastructural support and more. It isn’t easy to get past all barriers. For an organization struggling to invest in R&D, investing in HR tech is not going to be on the priority list. It is the same with analytics, diversity or any other HR initiative.
So what can one do to hasten the pace just a wee bit?
- Crunch Resources: This might seem counter-intuitive at first but you will be surprised to see how innovative people can be once they get past the initial crib. The reason why this doesn’t always work is because we can’t get past the initial shock of working on a tighter budget. Once we do get over that hurdle, there is very little we can do except innovate our way out of it. Slash 10% of your HR spends and push yourself to maintain the bar with the resources available.
- Reserve the 10% for experimentation: Here comes the fun bit. Use the money you cut from above and spend it on pure play experimentation. You aren’t allowed to spend it on incremental improvements. Save it for true risks.
- Read/Listen/Learn: Point 2 is rather useless without this one. You wouldn’t know where to spend your 10% if you don’t keep your eyes and ears open. There’s so much happening in the industry. It isn’t hard to spend that 10%. If nothing else, make a case for mood trackers 😉
Come to think of it. It isn’t very hard to get to the future. You just need to be invested in getting there come what may. It might take longer than others but 2017 might just be your year 🙂
The HR Business Partner Story 
Ankita you’ve made an interesting point here. While everybody accepts the technology is the way to go . A lot of companies still do not operate with the openness to accept technology as a way of life . Adoption of new technology is sometimes not even a part of the annual hr budget or annual goals of the function and it is here that leadership and mindset change play a strong role.