Guest Conversations and Highlights

Podcast Episode 9: HR Tech Trends with Mervyn Dinnen

1st July 2019

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In this very special episode, recorded at the Festival Of Work, Lucinda talks to Mervyn Dinnen, HR and Talent Trends Analyst, Author, Speaker, and renowned Tech Influencer, who brings the most up-to-date analysis to life.

This episode: HR Tech Trends with Mervyn Dinnen

Mervyn is currently researching ongoing trends impacting the hiring and retention of people and how digital transformation and technology is affecting that. Mervyn joins Lucinda today to talk about a few key trends that he feels are about to become important in the world of human resources, as well as the importance of proper onboarding.

Key Takeaways

Mervyn calls himself a “slashie”, a new term that has come to mean a man of many talents! Mervyn is a writer/analyst/blogger/author/consultant, to name but a few.
While conducting research into digitisation, Mervyn discovered that many who work in the sector are frustrated by the technology at work, and that the widely-used technology in the industry doesn’t seem to have been designed with people in mind. It is also felt that processes are automated in favour of inventing newer, more user-friendly processes.
The digital side of talent acquisition needs investment. Hiring has become a much-streamlined process. From offer to acceptance, and then to receiving a signed contract is the matter of half an hour now instead of several days. But onboarding, the process of taking someone brand new and turning them into an effective employee is in need of investment and improvement.
The first few months of a new job are crucial, not just for the employer, but also for the new employee. Some will leave a new job within this time because they feel they do not fit into the culture, they are struggling to adjust to the workload, or they can’t see room in the company to advance or develop. This can be as a result of the job being oversold by an over-zealous hiring manager.
Only one-in-five employees feel that the company they work for has accurately described themselves as an employer during the recruitment process.
In many organisations, onboarding becomes a confusing process that no one seems to want to take responsibility for. HR departments believe that the talent acquisition team are responsible and vice versa.
A lot of people don’t put senior hires through the onboarding process, leaving newly acquired executives to “hit the ground running” and catch themselves up.
HR productivity is key. Make sure you can automate as many processes as possible. Being overwhelmed by things such as holiday requests and case management and coaching, the human element is removed from other more important areas.

Best Moments

“I’m what is now called a “slashie” “
“In the main what we tend to find is that most employees are happy with digital interactions”
“It’s about finding the balance between the two: digital and people”
“Employees want their 9 to 5 to resemble their 5 to 9”
“It’s put aside for the Friday afternoon filing session that never comes”

Valuable Resources

You can access additional free HR Resources via the Actus Software website link below. Lucinda Carney is the founder and CEO of Actus Software: https://actus.co.uk/free-performance-management-resources/
The Internal Mobility Report: Drive Employee Engagement in 2021- Written in conjunction with research conducted by Mervyn Dinnen and Matt Alder of Two Heads Consulting.

View The Full Transcript

About The Guest

Mervyn Dinnen is an HR & Talent Analyst, researching and writing about the emerging trends that impact hiring, development, engagement and retention. He is also an award-winning recruitment blogger, and an International keynote speaker and writer on recruitment and HR trends. He has authored two books – ’Exceptional Talent’ (2017) and the forthcoming ‘Digital Talent’.

Twitter: @MervynDinnen

About The Host

Lucinda Carney is a Business Psychologist with 15 years in Senior Corporate L&D roles and a further 10 as CEO of Actus Software where she worked closely with HR colleagues helping them to solve the same challenges across a huge range of industries. It was this breadth of experience that inspired Lucinda to set up the HR Uprising community to facilitate greater collaboration across HR professionals in different sectors, helping them to ‘rise up’ together.

“When we look up, we rise up but when it comes to being evidence based this may well be about looking down and all around too!”