Solving people debt with a product mindset

Sofie Nasbeth

Business Development Manager

创业生活很少给人时间去计划人的运作. More than just the HR function, people ops looks at the management and development of people within the organization. But, when you create an organization by default and not by design, you risk causing ‘people debt’.

Reframing HR and people ops from service delivery to product design–the process of blending user needs with business goals–offers fast-moving companies the opportunity for growth. 没有人比马特·布拉德伯恩更了解这一点.

Matt is the founder and CEO of The People Collective. With experience spanning Primer, Vestiaire Collective, and Multiverse, he’s helped more than 120 startups and scaleups to grow their people strategy. 我们向马特询问了个人债务的概念, how fast-moving companies can avoid it, 以及一个以产品为中心的CHRO的基本技能.

This conversation has been edited for readability, actionability, and clarity. bwin足球平台帮助我们转录和研究了这篇文章.

The what, why, and how of people debt

什么是个人债务，它如何影响公司?

People debt is the consequence of allowing people ops to grow by default rather than by design. In practice, it looks like poorly-defined core values, opaque people processes, or a lack of career development.

These poorly-defined processes result in mounting levels of untapped potential, internal comms errors, and unclear expectations. These problems can create behaviors like slower decision making and lower employee engagement. 这些都是劣质文化的组成部分. Left unchecked, people debt results in high staff turnover and poorer commercial outcomes.

为什么在这么多快速增长的公司中，员工债务是一个问题?

需要优先考虑速度的公司通常会跳过核心流程. Early-stage companies don’t always have the time to define and roll-out culture, org design, or employee experience.

That’s understandable—it’s normal that people ops take a backseat when everyone’s attention is focused on urgent problems. 你不能忽视产品和工程、销售策略或增长. 但这种缺乏关注会导致人们陷入灰色地带，从而产生债务. For example, 当期望没有清晰地传达时, 或者薪酬率没有战略性地设定和应用, your employees are rightfully confused. 这种困惑会影响员工的满意度.

Read: How to start with People Analytics

但是每个公司都需要更好地关注人力资源, to grow their people ops by design. A product mindset makes it easier for fast-growing companies to avoid these problems.

Embracing a product mindset helps because product teams move systematically from idea to product. This system makes it easier to keep the customer at the heart of decision making. Teams can center user experience, keep learning more about users, 并运用MVP(最小可行产品)的思维方式. 这有助于团队基于用户反馈更快地发布产品和迭代. They keep agile.

Embracing the product mindset in practice

人力资源团队如何开始用产品思维来思考? Can you break it down for us?

Moving to a product mindset allows HR to drive the creation of a commercially-driven people ops strategy. 员工和消费者一样会遇到问题和痛点. They get frustrated. They don’t understand why things are moving so slowly, or why they can’t make decisions. 唯一的区别是疼痛发生在工作中.

Product teams usually start with an MVP. This is a version of a product with just enough features to make it usable by early customers. 他们反过来提供反馈以换取抢先体验. 产品团队做出假设——用户想要什么，它应该如何工作. Some assumptions will be wrong. The only way to test your assumptions is to put your product in front of real users as quickly as possible. Here’s how it can work in people ops.

Step 1: Understand the problem

Humans love jumping to solutions. 但除非我们开始探究我们想要解决的问题, we may end up creating the wrong solution. 这就是为什么我们必须与我们的客户，或者，在这种情况下，我们的员工交谈. Whether it’s understanding job titles, how equity is calculated, or annual leave across markets, the same rule applies. 你必须找出造成困惑或沮丧的原因. 你必须带着你的员工一起踏上旅程. 他们理解你为什么要制定这些策略吗? Do they agree with the approach? 当你和你的同事交谈时，你就是在和你的客户交谈. This is important.

Read: How L&D can today's solve business problems

步骤2:确定以客户为中心的解决方案

Once you’re armed with employee pain points, it’s time to start zoning in on solutions. Here, you want to keep a laser-focus on your customer and the user experience (UX). 当人们真正使用你的产品时，你的产品会是什么样子? 假设你的员工是混合型的，员工福利利用率很低. 这是否意味着你的员工门户应该是移动优先的? 或者你可能需要更多的远程友好的福利? Exploring solutions across the employee journey will lead to a more holistic experience.

第三步:设定目标，创造第一个MVP

Prioritize your goals by aligning the people ops strategy with the overall business strategy. 让你的商业或业务开发团队分享他们的目标, and then adopt the MVP approach.

Imagine your VP of Sales wants to create a new onboarding program to reduce time to productivity. Instead of spending 3 months creating all the material and scheduling all the courses, ask yourself: what's the minimum thing we could create to learn if we're on the right track and creating value? Start there. 然后将MVP发布给下一轮新员工，并征求他们的反馈. 利用这些反馈来激发下一轮的改进.

Step 4: Test and learn

Problems and products change. 你不能假设你的产品总是符合目的. So identify a review and iteration cadence that makes sense for your company’s stage. 可能是当你的员工增加了大约20个人的时候, 或者你要开设你的第一个海外办事处. The important thing is you return to the start of the product process and start talking to your customers. Then cross-check that against learnings from other People leaders who have already experienced this phase. 他们看到了哪些共同的问题?他们是如何适应的? What HR tech helped them scale efficiently? Learning from peers in other industries help you build an agile and targeted people ops strategy.

The product-focused CHRO

转向产品思维是一个相当大的转变! 有抱负的C轮或D轮CHRO应该培养哪些技能?

CHROs headed towards IPO need to combine sharp commercial thinking with power skills like empathy. And, of course, a product mindset. In my experience, these first two skills actually increase the chances of developing that product mindset muscle. 商业头脑会优化结果和影响, and an empathetic mind seeks out and understands customer needs and pain points. 这些是产品心态的关键要素.

Demonstrate commercial thinking

An advanced understanding of commercials allows a CHRO to own their place in the C-Suite. 通过将人员运营战略与核心业务目标结合起来, 人力资源部门向董事会展示人力运营如何支持核心业务战略.

阅读:学习如何面试你的员工

To deliver these commercials, a CHRO must be able to define what a successful outcome looks like. Say marketing is asking for more budget because there’s a planned expansion into new markets. 他们需要新员工来实现公司的目标. CHRO需要理解新战略的商业案例, the goals, and how the CMO will prove success. CHRO很清楚这些指标是什么样子的. 他们有信心向董事会汇报进展.

Leverage power skills

Power skills 数字化工作场所的基本人类技能是什么. Empathy is an essential skill for all senior leaders, and brings the product mindset to life. A product-focused CHRO is humble enough to analyze where problems really lie—even if that means backtracking on a previous hypothesis.

Let’s take talent drain. Imagine a scaleup is losing top people despite investing heavily in leadership training. 培训的完成率很高. Here, the CHRO needs to be prepared to dig deep and diagnose the real, underlying cause. 这意味着在与员工交谈时要表现出同理心和好奇心. 并创造一个安全的环境，让他们分享坦诚的反馈.

Power skills and commercial thinking are essential for the CHRO that’s ready to lead a company across markets. 在D轮融资或IPO中，这是一个典型的增长趋势. 从人力资源的角度来看，这带来了重大的政策挑战. 假设你在法国、英国和美国都有员工. As the CHRO, you need to create an equitable maternity leave policy across markets that provide very different legal rights to time off and statutory support. 但你的员工就是你的员工，不管他们在哪里. 解决这个问题需要高级的解决问题和权力技能. 它要求人力资源部门与法律和商业团队保持联系, internally and, potentially, with external consultants.

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