Shawnee Love   •  
November 1, 2010

Innovative HR doesn’t have to be an oxymoron. I spoke at a conference recently that proved to me there are plenty of like minded managers in and out of HR who want to bring people practices into the 21st century.

For me, that means our people practices and organizational culture have to fit where our business is going and our peoples’ needs in getting there.

As a first step, ensure we can answer these two questions for every people function and activity we are involved in:

1. What do we need to be accomplishing here?
2. Are we going about it the best way for our business?

Underlying these questions is the concept of “right for your business”. That is why best practices, while interesting and potentially inspirational, are not necessarily the perfect solution for your business. The Latin origin of “Innovation” means “to renew” which gives us license to build upon that which came before (best practices and/or our practices) and takes the pressure off having to create something entirely new and different.

Care to share your innovative people practices?