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HR Disrupted: It’s Time for Something Different
HR has lost its way and needs to find a new direction.
The central question this book sets out to answer if we are to survive and thrive in this new, volatile business world, how do we lead, manage, engage and support our employees in a radically different way?
HR departments, and companies, need to transform their approach. This entails not simply tinkering with the process or the mechanics, but taking a completely fresh look at the entire scenario. It’s the difference between spending hours deciding how many grades there should be in an employee grading system, and asking if grading people actually increases their ability to perform better in the first place.
To achieve this change, Disruptive HR has three
1. Treating employees as adults not children
2. Treating employees as consumers or customers (not a one-size-fits-all approach)
3. Treating employees as human beings
Employees as Adults, Consumers and Human beings. (Each of us is different, each of us deserves better.)
So what happens when you read this book? First, there’s the lightbulb ‘I do that and I hadn’t even realised it’. Then you’ll see what this means for you and your organisation, with practical tools, ideas and techniques so you can start making changes immediately.
And finally, the hard this book will help you introduce this new thinking to others in your business.
The central question this book sets out to answer if we are to survive and thrive in this new, volatile business world, how do we lead, manage, engage and support our employees in a radically different way?
HR departments, and companies, need to transform their approach. This entails not simply tinkering with the process or the mechanics, but taking a completely fresh look at the entire scenario. It’s the difference between spending hours deciding how many grades there should be in an employee grading system, and asking if grading people actually increases their ability to perform better in the first place.
To achieve this change, Disruptive HR has three
1. Treating employees as adults not children
2. Treating employees as consumers or customers (not a one-size-fits-all approach)
3. Treating employees as human beings
Employees as Adults, Consumers and Human beings. (Each of us is different, each of us deserves better.)
So what happens when you read this book? First, there’s the lightbulb ‘I do that and I hadn’t even realised it’. Then you’ll see what this means for you and your organisation, with practical tools, ideas and techniques so you can start making changes immediately.
And finally, the hard this book will help you introduce this new thinking to others in your business.
224 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 5, 2017
118 people are currently reading
576 people want to read
About the author
Lucy Adams
3 booksLucy Adams is CEO of Disruptive HR, an agency that helps HR professionals to innovate and make HR more relevant for a disrupted world. She is the former HR Director of the BBC. She is a popular keynote speaker and blogger. More information can be found at www.disruptivehr.com.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
October 14, 2019
The content is good and the underlying message makes sense. There's nothing new or groundbreaking in the book if you're up to date on progressive company cultures such as Netflix, Basecamp etc. However, if you're in a company with outdated policies and HR departments, this book will be very valuable.
It would have scored a 4 or 5. However, the book has several spelling and grammatical mistakes. It's also extremely repetitive and is poorly edited. I'd recommend the author employs a proper editor/proof reader for the next edition.
It would have scored a 4 or 5. However, the book has several spelling and grammatical mistakes. It's also extremely repetitive and is poorly edited. I'd recommend the author employs a proper editor/proof reader for the next edition.
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July 14, 2021Lucy Adams and I share an appreciation of a number of great writers on HR and Leadership like Simon Sinek and Dan Pink, along with other great books like The 100 Year Life. In their writing I found innovative and challenging ideas. I didn’t find that in this book. Many of the suggested disruptions are common place now in many organisations, particularly start-ups and in the tech sector. For those more traditional organisations, I don’t believe there is enough depth in to convince them otherwise in this short text. Wouldn’t recommend for those experience in HR. Read Sinek or Pink or Brown instead.
July 27, 2017
This book is what the HR profession needs to enter the next stage of its evolution. It's insightful, thought provoking and down to earth.
I encourage every HR professional to read it!
I'd also love for business leaders to read it so they realize what they're missing and start to change the expectations game.
I encourage every HR professional to read it!
I'd also love for business leaders to read it so they realize what they're missing and start to change the expectations game.
February 23, 2019
There might be organizations that need to introduce the disruptive HR strategies mentioned in this book, but I believe there are many out there that already do. Maybe I am just lucky to witness that. In other words, ideas are great and really worth implementing, however not innovative enough for 2019 when I am reading the book.
March 25, 2018
Great book!
I struggled a bit with the first chapter due to notes of cynicism and sarcasm that seeped through.
However the chapters that talk about how HR can be more strategic, innovative, linked to this day and age are great and a must read for all hr and business leaders.
Highly recommend!
I struggled a bit with the first chapter due to notes of cynicism and sarcasm that seeped through.
However the chapters that talk about how HR can be more strategic, innovative, linked to this day and age are great and a must read for all hr and business leaders.
Highly recommend!
February 27, 2022
This time around I want to rave about this one book that has consumed me for the past month: “HR Disrupted” by Lucy Adams. 📚❤️ To give a bit more context: I wasn’t HR by training. So what I know so far about HR has been the result of hands-on learning, and getting lessons from my previous bossess. About two years ago I had do my own learning…and I AM SO STOKED THAT I FOUND THIS.
I’m the type of person who cringe at Simon Sinek or Daniel Kahneman. Tried reading Dave Ulrich’s books (he is touted as grandfather of HR) and oh man, he is a grandfather for a reason, alright ✌🏼. So what made “HR Disrupted” stood out for me is its very practical examples, great case studies, and minimum jargons. And a lot of the topics are very relevant to the changing nature of work today.
- In what way are performance reviews relevant/not relevant today? And can we do away with them?
- In the last 25 yrs, corporate structures are 25% platter. How does this, and hugher life expectancy, affect ‘career path’?
- Are our policies and approach live up to treating employees as adults, consumers, and human beings? Or are we acting like a mum or a dad?
Those are just some of the many lightbulb moments I had. And it took me some time to read this because I actually could put some things into practice already.
All in all, this has been a great read. If all I read this month was this book, it has been a month well spent. And I will actually recommend this to even those people working in functions outside of HR to be honest. Not many technical books left me inspired at the end… but this one did!
I’m the type of person who cringe at Simon Sinek or Daniel Kahneman. Tried reading Dave Ulrich’s books (he is touted as grandfather of HR) and oh man, he is a grandfather for a reason, alright ✌🏼. So what made “HR Disrupted” stood out for me is its very practical examples, great case studies, and minimum jargons. And a lot of the topics are very relevant to the changing nature of work today.
- In what way are performance reviews relevant/not relevant today? And can we do away with them?
- In the last 25 yrs, corporate structures are 25% platter. How does this, and hugher life expectancy, affect ‘career path’?
- Are our policies and approach live up to treating employees as adults, consumers, and human beings? Or are we acting like a mum or a dad?
Those are just some of the many lightbulb moments I had. And it took me some time to read this because I actually could put some things into practice already.
All in all, this has been a great read. If all I read this month was this book, it has been a month well spent. And I will actually recommend this to even those people working in functions outside of HR to be honest. Not many technical books left me inspired at the end… but this one did!
May 26, 2022
Great general overview of what HR is about and what we need to do differently to be a modern, efficient and credible department moving forward. My key takeaways:
- we need to think about employees as consumers and adults
- we need to design our onboarding processes around how we want new employees to FEEL when they start
- we should reward teams, not individuals
- annual 360 feedback cycles are extremely expensive and inefficient, we should swap them with more regular and quick feedback mechanisms
- companies should offer different comp & ben packages for employees to choose from. We are all motivated by different things - and money alone barely motivates anyone to stay and exceed expectations
- less class room trainings, more on the job learning
- We need to link our change proposals to the business problems they will solve, in order to get buy in.
- we need to think about employees as consumers and adults
- we need to design our onboarding processes around how we want new employees to FEEL when they start
- we should reward teams, not individuals
- annual 360 feedback cycles are extremely expensive and inefficient, we should swap them with more regular and quick feedback mechanisms
- companies should offer different comp & ben packages for employees to choose from. We are all motivated by different things - and money alone barely motivates anyone to stay and exceed expectations
- less class room trainings, more on the job learning
- We need to link our change proposals to the business problems they will solve, in order to get buy in.
November 26, 2022
I rated this only 2 stars as today, I think it's already out of date in that it's talking about an ancient way of doing People (HR) and one that is bot in use in most forward-thinking businesses anymore. I know it was a hit but for me, today, it was all common sense and an obvious choice. I guess I never did HR in a big corp before the 2020s. 😬
July 19, 2017
I liked it a lot as it challenges the status quo of the HR by proposing an alternative approach. Maybe there are some things that i do not agree with but I find the whole idea interesting and convincing.
January 19, 2023
Wonderful book with lots of examples
It was a great and refreshing read, and did not bore the reader with theory. It was practical, and more importantly pragmatic. I would have loved to see some more lesser known examples, but hey, you can only ask for so much.
It was a great and refreshing read, and did not bore the reader with theory. It was practical, and more importantly pragmatic. I would have loved to see some more lesser known examples, but hey, you can only ask for so much.
January 11, 2023
Inspirant pour RH
March 7, 2017
There are excellent ideas in this book. There's less of a plan, but that's ok because the general theme is treating people as adults, consumers and humans, and so it's best to know what your organisation needs and which of the ideas are most appropriate for you.
Highlights for me were:
* The parts about recruitment and trying to avoid the pipeline of 'job opening - advertise - interview - filter - hire', and instead building relationships and communities, and already having a group of people in mind when a need arises.
* The over-reliance of processes instead of guidelines that match the organisation's values, and allowing the employees to provide decisions and actions that match their local requirements and the main goals. Essentially devolving the command-and-control structure.
To get best use of them one needs to follow all the references and dig out the supporting data, as that will help implement some of the ideas. As advised in the book, also talk to your marketing department.
Highlights for me were:
* The parts about recruitment and trying to avoid the pipeline of 'job opening - advertise - interview - filter - hire', and instead building relationships and communities, and already having a group of people in mind when a need arises.
* The over-reliance of processes instead of guidelines that match the organisation's values, and allowing the employees to provide decisions and actions that match their local requirements and the main goals. Essentially devolving the command-and-control structure.
To get best use of them one needs to follow all the references and dig out the supporting data, as that will help implement some of the ideas. As advised in the book, also talk to your marketing department.
August 15, 2019
This was a very interesting and timely read. As a young HR professional observing changes being made at the organizational level, this book gave me more insight and the ability to buy-in to the changes. I was able to learn a number of new ways to think about the role of HR in 2019 and to think about ways to align my thinking and my projects to the needs of the business. This was truly disruptive thinking on the author's part and a challenge to get out of comfort zones. I wish it was a little more guiding at the end about turning old hr into new hr. All in all great book.
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June 18, 2020Helps in the career
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews