Heading off to Barcelona

HRcoreLAB summit is an international HR event with three different simultaneous conferences focusing on recruitment, people analytics and HR agility. The 2-day event gathers together 500 HR executives from over 40 different countries to discuss the current people operations trends and what it takes to successfully navigate an organisation through the winds of change. 

Aico’s Head of People and Culture, Kaisa Nuorivaara, attended the event organised in Barcelona, Spain on March 20-21, 2023. Attending different kinds of events where you get to exchange information, share experiences and mingle with other professionals is a powerful way to enhance both personal and professional development.  

This was the first time Kaisa had been to the HRcoreLAB summit. As our Head of People and Culture, Kaisa was most interested in the HR Agility track, and going to listen to those speaking about hybrid working. Also, as our acting talent acquisition specialist, Kaisa wanted to check out some of the recruitment presentations. 

Given recent changes to our working life, Kaisa was keen to hear how other companies have tackled the issues surrounding hybrid/remote working models. She was also happy to discover there were a couple of speakers who talked about coaching, which connected perfectly with her recent training. 

Listening to those who don't speak out

For Kaisa, the most interesting talk was from Lego, entitled “Building learning habits/culture as a response to fast evolving organisations”. 

“Lego has really great employee survey feedback,” Kaisa explained, “the people are really happy in Lego, but they say their learning possibilities are bad compared to their ratings in other areas. Lego investigated and found that they needed to focus on their more passive employees. These are people who don’t make much noise or volunteer to trial things, but they are interested in learning something. Because often when we try to introduce something new into an organisation, we lean on the early adopters. But the passive people are about 45%, so they are who you need to ask when trying something new. Training is so personal, you need to reach these passive people and find out what they want to learn, not just assume it’s the same as the early adopters.” 

Other speakers agreed in their talks, emphasizing you need to ask people, “What would you like to learn? rather than pushing learning on them. “Centralised learning objectives don’t work,” Kaisa continued. “People learn best when they are interested in the subject, and when they understand the relevance of it.” 

Kaisa found this was one of the major themes of the whole event: the need to talk to people, and the need to listen to them. Whether in-person or remote, 121s are very important. You need to find out what people really think. “It’s very arrogant to assume you know what people want and what’s good for them,” Kaisa adds. 

“When examining remote working, just going to the office and seeing people, gives you the feeling of togetherness and belonging, even without including meaningful discussions. But when you work remotely, you need to double or triple those critical 121 conversations.” 

Touching on topics close to her heart

Coaching was a recurring theme. Having just completed a course in Systemic Business Coaching, Kaisa was especially interested to see the practical application of her studies. One topic for discussion was the idea that we are all losing the capability of listening and asking questions.  

“It seems to be that when you are talking to someone, you are not focussing on listening to what they are saying, you are waiting for your turn to share your thoughts. Instead of having a dialogue and conversing together, both participants are simply sharing what’s on their minds. Many of the speakers wanted to highlight that team members and leaders alike need to relearn how to listen and also ask questions. People don’t want to ask questions because they just want to talk about what is on their mind, not find out more about what the other person is talking about.” 

Revisiting equality and focusing on management styles

When it came to remote working, speakers brought up a new perspective on equality.  

“Often,” said Kaisa, “we don’t think about those people who have to come to the office because they cannot work at home. There might be children, noise, or space issues. Most people agree the option to work from home is a privilege, but it’s not open to everyone. We need to make sure we don’t discriminate because people live in a certain way. Should we consider whether these workers need another form of compensation? For example, a four-day week?” 

When it comes to management, Kaisa found some useful insights. Amazon gave a talk asking the question, “Is your manager a simplifier or complexifier?” Are they someone who smoothes the way or makes it difficult? Do they put checkpoints, additional reporting and complex processes in the way instead of letting people decide for themselves how to manage their work?  

Kaisa believes you need a balance. “People need different things, and as a manager, you cannot be what you want to be, you have to be what they need you to be.” 

The need to tackle the tough questions

Kaisa’s experience was incredibly positive, but she noticed a reluctance to tackle some of the tougher questions that remain unanswered.  

“There’s a lot of discussion about how to keep top talent. But no one is talking about those who aren’t performing as well. How do you help someone whose talents are not suited to their current role?” 

Everyone is being very positive about remote or hybrid working, which is understandable. But, what about the downside?  

“Loneliness is increasing and mental health is suffering, but this topic is yet to take its proper place at the forefront of people’s minds,” said Kaisa. “Innovation born from the spontaneity of face-to-face, in-person meetings, is declining.” These critical factors will need to be taken into consideration, and soon. Conferences like this one are a perfect place to normalise such discussions and encourage action. 

What are the next steps for Aico?

Kaisa wants Aico to utilise tech to help our international team communicate better. She will investigate Microsoft Viva, Microsoft fingertip and build on how we use Teams. Although each team has at least a weekly catch-up, and 121s are common, there is always more to learn about aiding communication and finding new ways for Aiconauts to talk to each other. 

Because we consider active communication and mental well-being critical to each employee, as well as to the future of Aico, we will be revisiting these topics and sharing the outcomes over the coming months.