Embrace the Challenge

So… to be honest, this week I was having challenges in finding a topic to write about – but then it dawned on me, I should write about “challenges” in 2018.

In my world today – the people function or commonly referred to as Human Resources - those challenges include (but certainly not limited to) finding the best talent, adding value with our senior executives, building a “we” culture to adapt quickly to our changing landscape, building for the future in our growing business, embracing and using the most current technology within my function, creating a “2020” flexible and accountable working environment, and understanding/handling harassment/bullying with new approaches – all leading to creating a productive workplace where everyone feels comfortable. 

How do we find the best talent at Gannett?  First and foremost is getting our message out to all potential employees.  This message is that we are transforming, we are digital, we are here to stay in the world of “fake news” and lack of trust in media.  We have nationwide opportunities.  We have challenging work.  We live as the world lives – every day brings a new story.  We foster a culture of diverse thought and transparent communication.  USA Today is a trusted brand viewed as “down the middle”.  We have ~125 million monthly unique visitors (did you know that?) and over a billion page views.  We empower our communities to connect, act and thrive.  We offer an extended spectrum of content on a variety of platforms.  We have expanded our suite of creative and analytical capabilities to support our marketing services.  We are the daily destination for our consumers and marketers.  We have fun.

Adding value with the senior executives is a daily challenge for any People function.  The paradigm has been “support” for years.  The best functions are “strategic”.   The catch is you are not viewed as strategic until you nail all the “support” issues first.  How do we become better at assessing risk, understanding the costs of human capital, utilizing our position of neutrality to help the business make the right strategic decisions?  Assessing and mitigating risk with each action or inaction.  Driving efficiencies through the business.  Proactively revising programs, policies, processes to support the business – investing for the future.  Investing in and utilizing analytics.  Focusing on corporate values, employee growth and development, as well as systems and processes that align with the philosophy of employee accountability.  Understanding the role of technology in our future – artificial intelligence, voice recognition, information on-the-go, etc.

We.  What is “we”?  In our workforce today, “we” is defined as different generations, classes, cultures, time zones, work histories, socio-economic groupings, religions, business functions, etc. – the list goes on and on.  To harness that difference, that innovation, that lens – to understand how to build the inclusive culture is the undisclosed value added to the balance sheet.  “Many organizations are working to create teams of employees who combine not only a range of specific business functions, but also different generations of workers — Gen X, Gen Y, Millennials, and Baby Boomers,” says Rick Lepsinger of leadership development firm On Point Consulting. “The appeal of these cross-functional and cross-generational teams is that they combine a diverse array of viewpoints on a single team – which can have a positive impact for innovation.”  Yet this may not be as easy as it sounds. “Building cross-functional teams requires organizations to clarify roles, responsibilities and decision authority, create effective communication between team members, and to set priorities so every team member can work better across the boundaries of their individual business units,” says Lepsinger.

The best companies are focused on tomorrow, not today.  How do we build for the future?  How do we hire for the future?  How do we train for the future? We need to offer a compelling experience for our employees to be challenged, to learn and to grow.  We need to offer an environment where our teams can excel – whether locally or virtually (or a combination of both).  We need to seriously take feedback about our function and make change – now.  We need to mobilize and embrace the use of things like artificial intelligence like other business functions.  We need to plan on the future blended workforce of part-time, full-time, virtual and onsite.  We need to provide incentives for our employees to be healthy.  And… we need to understand what the new “normal” of the HR function is.  

This leads me to technology.  How are we embracing the use of new technology?  Can my employees access everything on their mobile device?  Are we using chat-bots and voice recognition to help solve low level employee issues?  Are we designing interactive sites to assist in learning and education for our employees?  Are we providing small digestible chunks of information for our employees to use at their convenience?  

What will the 2020 work environment look like?  Will we have offices?  Will we have work from home?  Will we have something in-between?  Will we have nap pods, trees and biospheres to recharge, slides and jumping pads, balloons and snowballs?  How do we find the distinction between fad and neuroscience? Whatever the answer is – it is not what it looks like today.

And finally, the outdated cultural norms have to be changed – it is the right thing to do.  The companies who do not take this seriously will lose the talent war.  From MeToo to Sanctuary Cities, to Time’s Up to Defend Science to BlackLivesMatter to Islam is Not Terrorism to Racism to LGBTQA+ to MillenialsMatter – all of these are current issues affecting society and thus our workforce and current talent.  These issues are part of our everyday culture and the companies who allow a platform for discussion and a system to educate and understand will be those who win the war on talent. 

The future is not easy, but it is coming either way.  Embrace the unknown and drive your team forward. 

Together.  We.  Win.

Dave Harmon
People Division
“Kindness is Currency”
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/davidharmonhr

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