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Bobby Menon

The Head of the HR department must be somebody employees want to go out of the way to please, not just somebody they work for. What's the picture in most companies?

I was talking to a friend just the other day and he is the CEO of a large organisation.

We talked of a whole lot of problems that he was facing and as one thing led to another, he suddenly asked me for the ideal `Person Description' of the Head of Human Resources.

I mulled it over. For one, this is something that I am very passionate about. The Head of HR is someone to whom a CEO hands over the non-tangible assets of a company - the only asset that will affect the bottom line and the only asset that will make a difference between make and break - that of human capital.

I told him, for starters, that the Head of HR ought to be a Leader and not so much a Boss of the HR Team. Now, many people will ask you what the difference is. There is a world of a difference. In a nutshell, people go out of their way for a leader and work for a boss. If you were the CEO of an organisation, whom would you pick?

My friend and I then went into the other aspects of experience, qualification and skill. And he asked me if I didn't think that his Head of HR should be from a premier HR institute with anywhere between 10-20 years of experience and a complete knowledge of the entire gamut of the line functions of HR pertinent to that specific industry. Shouldn't he or she be a good people manager, be an extrovert, with good communication and interpersonal skills?

(Obviously, someone had given my friend a "Typical Profile.")

What I did not hear of as a `must' in his list for a head of HR was that the person should be a great human being worthy of emulation, a person who can lead by example. A person who is a giver, gives of himself or herself selflessly and in abundance, day in and day out, without ever stopping to think `is any of this coming back to me?'

The human touch

Someone is really touched by this person on a daily basis in the environment that he or she works in.

Would touching a heart a day in the organisation be a thumb-rule for a day's work well done? What would happen if you did find the right "fit" but not the human touch? It would be, in my opinion, a disaster. The human capital of that organisation, which is non-tangible and more valuable than the financial capital of that organisation, get eroded. Such people write unfriendly and inconsiderate Human Relations Policy, so the employees turn their backs on organisations.

If a CEO does find a "Typical Head of HR" profile, without any feel for people, all the other attributes, including education, experience, knowledge of line functions etc become mere transactional issues. The education and the experience of a person are not the only criteria to look for. Especially in the case of the Head of HR. One could perhaps even draw an analogy from personal relationships. If a relationship between two people is to thrive, both persons will have to give of their best. Likewise, an organisation cannot flourish if its employees do not love their jobs, their organisations and give more than 100 per cent of themselves.

Therefore, the Head of HR, in any organisation must be almost akin to a great CEO. A born leader, a great person to emulate, a person who is capable of earning a great deal of respect - not for the position that he or she holds, but for the immense capability to give, to lead and someone who is not so different from your CEO. From such a person radiates an aura that is pure personality, pure charisma and pure leadership. From such people's shadow are born future leaders.

The Head of HR should be someone who can actually transform saplings of human beings into trees, encouraging talent, encouraging human endeavour, hope, and promise.

No hiring in a hurry

In the greatest of organisations that today's HR and management gurus rave about, the most treasured and most valuable asset is their human capital. And these companies know that it is these ordinary people who go on to perform extraordinarily at work, transforming ordinary-looking companies into extraordinary enterprises. It is people that transform decaying organisations into thriving work places and environments. Gallup, South West and Disney have realised that the person who heads their human asset cannot be hired in a hurry, cannot be taken lightly, cannot be someone who is great on process but low on people. Indeed, if the Head of HR does not believe that HR is by itself a service company within an organisation, with the employees being its customers, and that like every other service company, customer satisfaction is of paramount importance, he is doing the organisation a major disservice.

The Head of HR should be someone who is seen as an employee by other employees, someone whom they can count on, the kind of person who can say — I can help you with that! And mean it. And it's no emotional drivel. If people do not become emotionally attached to organisations, the first casualty is productivity. If productivity takes a hit, you don't need to be a genius to figure out that profitability is also going to go south.

Emotional business

If you cannot have a Head of HR who will latch on to the emotional bonding of employees, then you have the wrong man in place. Surely, but slowly, a decay will set into your organisation that will be difficult to set right.

For HR is an emotional business. You have to be passionate, you have to be emotional about it - for these are two aspects that will be felt and if you want your people behind you, then they should feel the difference. If they feel it in their daily lives, it will be reflected in the work they do.

Some of the greatest HR Heads have gone on to become excellent CEOs and why? Because if you have proven yourself as someone who can lead ordinary people to perform extraordinary things, then you, as a CEO, can bring together a team of extraordinary people and achieve what most people think is just plain impossible.

My friend shook his head - I had just made his search a little more difficult than he thought it was!

The author is an HR consultant who can be reached at bobbymenon@bonvod.com

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