{"id":909,"date":"2008-08-11T01:00:46","date_gmt":"2008-08-11T09:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/?p=909"},"modified":"2008-08-11T01:01:41","modified_gmt":"2008-08-11T09:01:41","slug":"cycling-concepts-and-hr-drafting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/?p=909","title":{"rendered":"Cycling Concepts and HR: Drafting"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are actually quite a few HR bloggers who are also cyclists.\u00a0 Thomas Otter is a leading candidate, as are the other Systematic and Jeff Hunter.\u00a0 I\u2019ll also join the cyclist crew, although not nearly as gung-ho as I used to be.\u00a0 Consider the following posts to be an ode to cycling and the 2008 Olympics as I make my feeble attempt to connect cycling principles with HR.<\/em><\/p>\n

One of core competencies for any cyclist is to learn to draft.\u00a0 Drafting simply means that a cyclist can get behind another rider and save between 20-35% of their effort, simply by not having to cut through the wind.\u00a0 It\u2019s the same concept used in auto racing.\u00a0 In a bike race, this is why the entire pack stays together as a single entity \u2013 nobody wants to get left behind to fight on their own.\u00a0 When one gets left behind, they generally get left very far behind while everyone else finishes substantially ahead and much better rested.<\/p>\n

The same goes for HR.\u00a0 We have our partners in the vendor space, and the hope is that we are riding their functionality, technology and services to our success, but that they also gain from both fees and product development opportunities.\u00a0 The idea here is that in today\u2019s HR world, we are so completely dependent on our various vendors to execute their part of our service delivery model, that if they fail, we simultaneously fail as well.\u00a0 If their service levels drop off, those are in fact our service levels, and while we may get some of our fees back due to service level agreements, the fact that our customers have been let down does not change.<\/p>\n

One of the key attributes of drafting in a bike race is that the person(s) riding into the wind at the front of the group are only there for a short amount of time.\u00a0 This is a shared burden.\u00a0 With our HR vendors, sure we pay them for services, but their being a vendor to us is not really what we\u2019re looking for.\u00a0 As kitschy as it sounds, the truth is that we\u2019re looking for partners who can help us deliver services.\u00a0 This simply means that we have more to give back to our vendors than simply the fees we\u2019re billed for.\u00a0 Whether it\u2019s identifying enhancements, being references when service is great, participating in networks with their other clients, or whatever you can think of, a partnership means much more than fees for services.<\/p>\n

Every once in a while someone in a bike race does fall back.\u00a0 They had a bit of a crash, or perhaps a flat tire.\u00a0 Hopefully in the process, they didn\u2019t slow too many people down with them.\u00a0 These incidents are a fact of bike racing \u2013 it happens.\u00a0 And honestly, it happens with our vendors too.\u00a0 When someone falls behind, it\u2019s often customary for a few people in the back to drop back and lend a hand.\u00a0 Your vendors will not always be perfect.\u00a0 However, if you have a partnership with them, you know things will go wrong and you\u2019ll work together to correct the issues.<\/p>\n

So in the spirit of partnership and cooperation, hopefully your vendors are giving you more than what you need.\u00a0 And if so, give back a little bit too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are actually quite a few HR bloggers who are also cyclists.\u00a0 Thomas Otter is a leading candidate, as are the other Systematic and Jeff Hunter.\u00a0 I\u2019ll also join the cyclist crew, although not nearly as gung-ho as I used…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hr-technology","category-vendors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}