The Hindu Business Line : Doing more with less

Over the past several months, HR professionals have been busy helping their organisations do more with less, and I must say they have been reasonably successful in responding to the call of business by cutting costs in staffing, compensation and benefits, infrastructure and so on.

Very little, however, has been written or spoken about how the HR function itself is managing to do more with less. Look at the symptoms: In the last six months, a significant number of HR professionals have lost their jobs. The resultant pressure on HR to service employees with a smaller team is very evident. The reduction in budgets also means that HR professionals have to deliver on the same agenda with less access to external resources. Can HR respond to this challenge and, if so, how?

Here are four possible ways in which HR can attempt to do a lot more with a lot less.

Become self-reliant

In the days of plenty, HR attracted a number of professionals some of whom did not have the time and the inclination to acquire specialised knowledge and skills to perform their roles. With money not being a constraint, many had access to external service providers who gave them ready-to-use ‘branded’ solutions to meet their needs. As a result, many of these professionals ended up merely orchestrating these engagements rather than ideating, conceptualising and designing them. So, while the high quality work was being done outside organisations at significant cost, these expensive HR professionals continued to grapple with a huge pile of transactional issues. Today, with access to these specialist services either diminished or cut off, HR professionals are bound to feel helpless.

For HR to do more with less, the first thing that they need is more competence. In many ways, the slowdown is a golden opportunity for HR professionals to learn the art and science of real HR management. Here are a few illustrative avenues to acquire these HR competencies at virtually no cost:

Learn the science of survey feedback: ‘Survey feedback’, which in many ways is the science behind all the modern employee engagement surveys, is a good place to start. HR professionals can learn to design and conduct these surveys themselves. This will take them closer to their employees, teach them what engagement really means on the ground, empower them with a new competence and save lots of money.

Compensation surveys: For many years, organisations have had informal clubs through which compensation data was shared among comparable organisations. This gave HR leaders and compensation and benefits (C&B) specialists a first-hand feel for market competitiveness. Today, most of the C&B competence lies solely with C&B consultants. With all the modern-day advantages of professional networking and online information, would it not be possible for HR professionals to do a C&B survey in-house and in the bargain save money and learn a valuable competence?

Recruitment and selection: The best talent is always head hunted and the best reference checks are always undertaken personally through informal networks. Can HR professionals not use their informal networks to bring on board some high-cost talent and save money in the bargain?

Renegotiate the HR agenda

In recent years, many HR professionals have taken on a lot more than they can chew and their organisations can digest. In order to make an impact, many have caused an ‘initiative overload’.

Now is the time to re-order functional priorities and focus on a few vital initiatives. It is, however, important that HR professionals do this re-prioritisation in consultation with their business leaders. While most business leaders are likely to welcome this focus, in some cases the negotiation process might not be easy. Business leaders might have conflicting demands or might push hard and the HR team may say “yes” without having the resources to deliver. Business sense and influencing skills are key here.

Organise ourselves differently

For many years, rudimentary HR operations including processing of employee requests and resolution of queries were handled by a breed of well-trained clerical staff who not only found great value in doing the job, but also had the ‘tolerance to routine’ to do it well. It is my suspicion that many of these jobs are currently handled by so-called qualified HR professionals who not only cost a lot more, but also do it grudgingly.

This might be the right time to create a new cadre of employee welfare professionals who are a lot more emotionally attuned to the needs of employees and might also be better suited for this role. These employees are likely to give tenure and predictability along with speed and efficiency. Most importantly, they will cost us a lot less.

Become psychologically green

According to Hendrie Weisinger, author of The Genius of Instinct, being psychologically green means tuning in to your instincts, getting back to basics and back to our human nature. Whereas ‘physical green’ is analogous to protecting our planet, ‘psychological green’ is about protecting and honouring our human nature.

When HR has to do more with less, more and more HR professionals need to turn psychologically green. Becoming psychologically green will mean that we preserve and promote a healthy organisational work environment.

Among all the professions in the world of business, it is the HR professionals who are most psychologically attuned and best equipped to understand the emotions, intentions, dreams and concerns of employees. In these trying times, HR professionals will do well to disconnect from their virtual way of connecting with employees and make a real connection with the human being at work. By listening to them, accepting their vulnerabilities and contributing to their development, we would have gone green and would have truly done more with less!

(The writer is founder and CEO of totus consulting, a strategic HR consulting firm. He is also co-founder of the Executive and Business Coaching Foundation India Ltd. He can be reached at ganesh@totusconsulting.com)

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