Can HR also hack? Yes, we can!
Did you know that the Facebook “Like” button and Facebook Chat were both first demoed at internal Facebook hackathons? Hackathon, a sprint-like event is used to collaborate intensively on software development, and now it found its way to Human Resources in Swiss Re, too.
Why organize an HR Hackathon?
We piloted our first HR Hackathon on 26th of September when 18 courageous colleagues from several Swiss Re HR teams in Bratislava got together to solve 2 HR challenges. Although hackathons typically may take from 24 to 72 hours, we challenged our colleagues to come up with solutions and present them to senior leadership in just 12 hours.
We designed the event with the main purpose to bring together colleagues from various HR teams to collaborate and leverage on their diverse background and experience. We encouraged our colleagues to experiment in a safe environment without the fear of failing and innovate as innovations also strengthen our competitiveness.
On top of a unique collaboration and networking opportunity, hackathon is also a great way to increase engagement, accelerate speed of delivery and enhance creativity and problem-solving skills. Want to know how we did it? Read on.
Ready for a challenge? Bring it on!
In the morning of HR Hackathon four teams were presented with two challenges. Two teams were working on one topic in parallel. After a short brief and introduction, they dived directly into the work. The colleagues used brainstorming, discussing, researching, data analyzing, design thinking in the creative process. It was amazing to observe how the diversity of opinions helps to form the prototypes of future solutions.
Both challenges were defined quite broadly so that the participants could narrow them down and tackle a pain point with an innovative solution which can make the most impact in the future.
#Challenge 1
To ensure we thrive in an increasingly challenging and changing environment, companies need to continually attract, develop and retain talent and stay ahead of competition. In the first case for change the teams were asked to improve candidate experience in recruitment and onboarding process.
#Challenge 2
Development opportunities are one of key engagement drivers and not each employee aims for a people manager position. In the second case for change the teams were asked to design an expert career journey in HR.
After 12 hours of intense collaboration it was time for the teams to present their solutions. And to make things more interesting (and even more challenging) each team had only 5 minutes to present to the jury consisting of our senior HR leaders and 10 minutes for Q&A. And present they did! From compelling storytelling with personas to sleek presentation visuals using a cartoon character – one thing is for sure – it pays to know your audience! All four teams did a great job to captivate the audience and get their innovative solutions across.
HR Hackathon is over. What´s next?
It was the most suspenseful 30 minutes waiting for our jury to come back and provide feedback on the presented solutions. After the feedback and debrief we were pleased to hear that our senior leaders will endorse and sponsor two solutions. Two winning teams were asked to elaborate on their solutions and come up with an implementation plan.
Although the HR Hackathon is over, we believe that the energy, engagement and commitment to drive the endorsed solutions to a successful implementation will live on. Judging from the positive feedback from participants and our leaders, it was a great event which deserves a second round.
A big THANK YOU to all courageous colleagues from Swiss Re HR in Bratislava as well as our senior leaders for enabling us to collaborate, experiment and innovate. Until next time, #LetsH(R)ackTogether!
Do you prefer to work in collaborative culture where you can experiment to bring practical innovation to life? If you do not find it where you are, then one of the options would be to join Swiss Re 😊 Give it a thought and learn more about us on our career site.