The prospect of implementing a new technology solution can be both a daunting and exciting prospect for an HR Professional. Technology promises the golden ticket to efficiency and effectiveness, yet how many times have you invested time and money in technology only to have the opposite experience? Let’s look at some of the key drivers behind the adoption of HR technology solutions, and what’s needed in order to ensure that implementation and subsequent user experience have the most positive and beneficial impact possible. After all, the point of adopting HR tech solutions is to make the lives of all individuals who need to use the software better, happier and more productive.

The daily challenge of HR Professionals is to deliver both tangible benefits, and positive results, for employees and the Organisation alike. Successful HR Professionals harness market best practice, and increasingly, use HR technology solutions to ensure that their organisations are agile, flexible and above all, competitive. Market Leaders do this by addressing technological, structural and process related challenges, then implementing the most cost effective and benefit enhancing solutions available to them in order to meet these challanges. The key to success is to prioritise strategic needs and then match them with the right service delivery solutions.

We all trust ‘big data' these days, correct? Let’s have a look at some of the data from Edelman’s 2014 Trust Barometer Survey. Examination of reliable big data (and Edelman’s data set is both broad and deep, rigorously researched and meticulously reported), is the best way to ascertain trends and take the pulse of the current environment. In this case, the data communicates how much the public, or general populace trust the institutions they deal and do business with on a day to day basis in life. The data driven headlines from Edelman’s report are set out below.

Times they are a changing! In fact, the only thing you can really be sure of, is change itself. If doing business, and doing it well in the Human Era is predicated on building trust and trusted connections, how do we go about doing exactly that in a ‘Human Era’ context?

The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines ‘Trust’ in the following way: ‘A belief that someone or something is reliable, good, honest, effective, etc.’

To ensure that your EVP generates maximum benefit and return on investment, it needs to be built around the real attributes that your company can offer employees in the context of attracting, engaging and retaining the talent you want. It also needs to be consistent with the strategic objectives of your organisation and clearly demonstrate its uniqueness.

An effective Employee Value Proposition (EVP) will enable your organisation to stand out amongst the crowd as something different, something special, as an organisation that cares deeply about its employees. It ensures that your organisation’s processes and procedures are aligned in such a way that employees walk their talk and that everyone’s experience of your organisation (employees, customers, suppliers) matches what you say your organisation is about.

All this talk about values got me thinking : I wonder how many of us, HR Professionals in particular, actually really know what our own personal values are. Why do we do what we do, and what gets us out of bed in the mornings?

I’m sure most of us think we know what they are. However, if you look at the statistics, 30% of people often cite family as one of their most important values, yet a surprising number of these people also often spend a lot of time travelling for business meetings.

Part 1 of this Blog introduced a concept that is not especially new in HR circles, however, the uptake of aligning personal and organisational values, as a benchmark process in recruitment strategies, has not yet reached a critical mass.