Next Practices
Those in human resources proceed strategically and focus on best practices. Many benchmark common practices of other professional recruiters that are successful. While benchmarking has its positives, it often allows a company to fade into mediocrity. The business world no longer operates at a snail’s pace. If a company benchmarks too frequently, things may have already changed before the benchmark results can be implemented. New ideas and innovation will always propel you ahead in the game. Some companies think “next” practices instead of “best” practices.
Best practices encourage you to do what you are doing currently – only better. An innovative company takes the risk of doing something that has never been done before. It’s riskier, but often pays off. An example might be a recruiter who breaks out of limiting recruiting in the state only and recruits nationally or hiring someone who has the current skills needed in addition to skills that will be needed in the future. It goes without saying the predicting which human resource practices will become obsolete in the future could be difficult. An approach might be to read in the areas that will enable you to foresee up and coming business practices. Watch to see what the Fortune 500 companies are doing. Follow Apple, General Electric, Exxon, and all the large companies to identify anticipated business trends. Some suggested reading would be Business Week, Workforce Management, and Fortune. There are numerous periodicals to choose from. Other approaches you might consider include reading CEO speeches and articles written by key industry thought leaders who have a track record of forecasting inflection points. Look for individuals who think outside the box and are consistently unhappy with current approaches.
Next practices can be developed by networking with some of the top firms. They may be reticent to share so, perhaps, you may have to design a “barter” type system for trading next practice ideas. Another approach would be to spend some money and hire a consultant – one who has that innovative style of thinking. Efforts should be made to network with individuals who have demonstrated their ability to accurately predict inflection points and the related next practices in recruiting and HR
This thinking most definitely requires a certain amount of courage. Risk takers are those who expect success but know that they may fall flat on their faces several times before achieving success. The key is to proceed with courage and be unafraid. You must believe in the change you are trying to implement. Change is not for the faint of heart. Barbara Pletcher once said, “The real winners in life are the people who look at every situation with the expectation that they can make it work or make it better.”
Source: “Global HR News: Next Generation of Best Practices.” Global HR News: Next Generation of Best Practices. Web. 09 May 2013.