4 Steps to Become a People Innovator

Hand with marker writing the word Innovation

“The best people and HR leaders I know have been labeled maverick at one time or another because they build something that goes against the norm, they challenge the status quo, and they see beyond the perceived limitations of their function and therefore extend well beyond it. They bring meaning to the workplace and it runs through everything that affects people.” Ben Whitter

Maverick. Pirate. Experimenter. Words to describe HR? Doubt you’ve heard HR people being called these things regularly. I think it is why, in many ways, people are commenting that HR is dead or changing its name entirely to things like “People Operations”, “Talent Operations” and a recent development, “Workplace or Employee Experience Creator”.

Another thing I’m seeing people point to as to why HR doesn’t deserve a seat at the company leadership table is because they don’t contribute to impacting the business bottom line. Really? What is more important that the human resources that make up your business? I think the real reason for this is because HR typically doesn’t use data to PROVE impact and chooses to own the transactional instead of the transformational. Impact is there, it just isn’t proven or chosen as a place to focus.

So I propose HR leaders need to combine two things to give HR legitimacy and therefore the title of “People Innovators”, which is my personal favorite label. We need to tie HR to creating value and innovation in the way this is done.

Scientist/Practitioner Model

The model I was taught in graduate school was to be a “scientist/ practitioner.” This is why I had to write a thesis, pass the PHR and work for an I/O consulting firm in order to graduate.

It doesn’t sound synonymous with “maverick” at first glance, but when you think about the fact that the majority of HR pros aren’t backing up their actions with sound science, you realize this truly is novel.

As a scientist/practitioner you:

Use research
Understand research
Experiment, in other words, do the research
Apply the learning to solve real word people challenges

Although I’ll admit I haven’t always done this, I now realize this is how innovation happens. So to help other HR pros do this, here are two tips:

I’ve compiled a list of research covering key HR topics (thank you Org Psychology Syllabus- I knew there was a reason to keep you!) Check it out here. Before you tackle a people problem or challenge, identify its source then go to the research to see what has been proven to impact this area.
Test the heck out of things. Do A/B tests (sometimes called split tests) and 1% testing (testing something on 1% or a small percentage of your workforce). Over and over again, innovation comes through trial and error that arises from risk taking and experimenting. These processes come out of testing to see what customers want or like, but can also be applied to people issues. After all, employees are HR’s customers. This helps you do the research on your own turf, giving you more specific details as to what works in the context of your environment.

Some examples of this may be:

Recruiting: Need to post a job and you’re having trouble figuring out how to get the posting to draw the best talent. A few experiments: Simply post it on two different sites and see which site yields better results in terms of both volume and quality. 2. Take it a step further by writing two different job descriptions with two different types of language. Same job, same responsibilities, just make one a run of the mill job posting and make one fun and edgy. Post them both on the same site. Which posting yields better results?
Employee Benefits: Say you are considering a shift to a la carte benefits in order to increase employee satisfaction and retention while at the same time controlling benefit costs. But you aren’t sure this route will accomplish either of these goals. Roll it out to a small group (1% testing) of employees first. Measure this group compared to the other in terms of satisfaction, retention and cost. Will this method meet your goals? If not, try another route on a small group. In doing this, though, make sure you explain to everyone why you are trying the change with a small group first.

Teach company leaders how to understand the research, do the experimenting and apply it. HR makes the biggest impact when it creates an exponential effect in its impact. This is done not by doing everything in a silo or on your own, but by teaching people leaders to be innovators themselves. This brings the “meaning to the workplace” ripple to reality. HR can create a Moore’s Law situation for itself by teaching others, improving exponentially over time. What is more innovative than that?

What label would you use to describe the most innovative HR practitioner you know?

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