In 2005, Keith Hammonds, Deputy Editor of Fast Company wrote an article titled Why We Hate HR?

Understandably, this piece led to a lot of discomfort for HR professionals globally. Hammond’s arguments can be summarised as follows: — HR people are, for most practical purposes, neither strategic nor leaders; HR is so often the henchman for the CFO, finding even more ingenious ways to cut benefits and hack at payroll; HR processes are duplicative and wasteful creating a forest of paperwork even for minor transactions; HR people are not the sharpest stacks in the box; HR pursues efficiency in lieu of value; HR does not champion the cause of employees anymore; The corner office does not ‘get’ HR; and HR is crippled by “educated” incapacity: you are smart, you know the way you are working today is not going to hold 10 years from now. But you can’t move to that level. You are stuck!

Well, as someone who spent 30 years in HR working for some of the best in class global corporations, I can say with humility that not all of Hammond’s views are totally true of HR professionals. HR professionals have deservingly come to occupy the “seat at the table” and an “office next to that of the CEO.”

Becoming true partners

Is there scope for HR to improve both their contribution and image? The answer is a resounding “yes.”

Let me focus on contributions that we can make to create value and be counted as a true partner in building the business:

Clean up HR for data accuracy and reliability: Despite installing expensive software packages, most HR folks would admit to the less than 100 per cent reliability of the data they produce for review with senior managers. Attention to this all-too-important activity cannot be ignored as a back-office activity. In reality, this is the backbone activity, not back office. Right talent, well-defined processes, periodic audits need to be invested in to make this work.

Establish a robust HR architecture: HR architecture is much more than simply a department packed with people. Thoughtfully designing an HR organisation with clear decision levels and decentralisation of authority is critical first step. Many HR organisations that I studied over the years vouch for the fact that there is hardly any delegation — everything needs to go to the HR head and, ironically, the HR head has no time for doing justice to this over-centralised environment. Then comes the focus on HR interventions and systems that serve a business purpose — either as an enabler or as a driver. Hiring competent HR professionals to man the structure is the third step.

Establish an escalation process and make it widely known: Escalation is viewed as a bad word by many HR professionals with some even taking it too personally. Confident HR leaders will establish a clear line of escalation, including which employees can go to if the HR leaders is they are not responding with the requisite sense of urgency. And then, widely publicise this, post this on the intranet and educate employees during orientation programs. As structure and responsibilities change, this chart has to be updated and uploaded of course.

Be and be seen as employee champion: Being an employee champion is more misunderstood than not in many HR teams. Employee champs ensure that communication process is smooth, employee grievances are listened to and addressed on time, managers who misbehave with employees are dealt with appropriately with admonishment or separation, career coaching is offered to needy employees, transactional and distributive justice is done in dealing with salary raises and promotions. This is, of course, a tall order, but how else can we motivate, engage and retain good people?

Institute and Institutionalise a strong stable people management system: End of the day, employee engagement and productivity are managed through empowering and enabling the line managers to own and deliver the responsibility for people management. Again, in my experience and enquiry,

I have noticed that majority of the organisations do not have a well-articulated philosophy, process and practice of people management. This is understood at an intellectual level, but rarely put into practice. The reason why companies like IBM and GE have robust talent management practices is because the line managers in these companies own this and are equipped by HR with the competencies required to do a good job at this.

Focus on organisational capabilities: Organisations often do not appreciate the people-related capabilities as much as they do with core competencies relating to production or distribution.

Collaboration, accountability, execution bias, continuous learning, role-modelling by leaders, and the like represent soft people-related capabilities that drive strategy-focused behaviour on the part of the employees. HR folks will do well to zero in on a few of these capabilities and use their learning and development teams to deliver these to their organisation.

Measure and report value: An examination of the MIS reports or scorecards churned out by the HR will reveal a startling focus on efficiency metrics, not impact metrics. For example, number of man days of training or number of programs “successfully” delivered is measured and reported. This is a perfect example of efficiency focus. Organisations and CEOs value what capabilities were built or enhanced. HR must devise a mechanism to measure and report the outcome, taking focus away from activity. Similar examples can be drawn from all other aspects of HR management as well.

Moving focus from operational HR to strategic HR: Strategic HR is again more misunderstood than not. Several B-Schools have more recently introduced a paper on “strategic HR.” But a deep-dive into what is being taught will reveal a glaring misunderstanding of the subject itself.

The same old stuff — call it recruitment, training, compensation, and the like — is taught, with a prefix “strategic.” It is a no brainer that anything strategic has got to do with the way business is run such that a lasting competitive advantage is created.

Role of HR in enhancing customer intimacy, expanding geographically for market share, mergers and acquisitions for inorganic growth and how HR can help here, identifying strategic capabilities that deliver value in the market place and how talent segmentation can be done to strengthen further these capabilities are a few examples of how strategic HR can take shape

The above list is only a sample. Smart HR leaders will identify opportunities for contribution keeping in view the “best fit” for their organisations.

(The writer is an Executive Coach and HR Advisor.)

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