Ask HR Lite: What is the potential for HRM to assist in the strategic development of the business? From Seat at the Table
HRLite Responds: Great question. Once again demonstrating my complete inability to give a simple answer to a question, I thought I would answer this question in a couple of parts. Today, I will start with the general question of how HR can help to drive strategy or strategic development. But to demonstrate I am trying, I have made this answer a top 10 list. (For anyone interested in strategy and HR, I would suggest starting with the classic book by Ulrich, Human Resource Champions).
10. I believe the recent economic crisis illustrates three fundamental problem areas: leadership, decision making, and ethics. These are all areas where HR should have advanced knowledge, expertise and a lot to contribute. Unfortunately, HR often gives up the leadership roles in these competency areas. Demonstrate your leadership in these areas.
9. Start with your own department and area. Make sure HR functions in a maximally effective manner and follows the principles that you espouse. The old actions speak louder than words.
8. Develop your own employees. Encourage your managers to rotate through other functional areas so as to gain knowledge and so as to be prepared for promotion.
7. Make sure HR functions are integrated rather than split across line areas and different staff departments. Takes the lead in the recruitment, assessment, training and development of all employees. Make sure areas such as assessment and training are integrated. Complain loudly when a line manager gets $50,000 to bring in a comedic motivational speaker and you cannot get a budget to support responses to real needs.
6. Take a leadership role in succession planning, executive leadership, and management of the culture of the management team.
5. Be an expert in culture – especially global management. For global companies, this is a real sore spot and a sure way for HR to show its value. By the way, my experience has been that companies that are owned by firms outside of the US often have a greater appreciation for HR, and their role in managing culture, than do US firms.
4. One of the best ways to gain power is to have access to critical data. Outside of customer satisfaction, probably no piece of data is more important than employee satisfaction. Make sure you do regular employee surveys and take actions to keep employees satisfied. Be an employee champion.
3. Demand a seat at the executive table. Traditional advice is to get a seat at the table. That usually does not work, demand one and have the arguments prepared for why you have to be at the table.
2. Be prepared when you get to the table. Learn to speak the language of other business partners, not just HR. Be prepared to address their problems, not just yours. Once you are there, show you belong.
1. Show you can do it. Go out and take over a company, or start your own company, and demonstrate that through the effective management of people, your company can be the best.
Tomorrow, what about assessment professionals specifically?
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One of the things that HR professionals can be ex
One of the things that HR professionals can be exquisitely aware of that sometimes management isn’t, is the fact that people leave an organization, and may move within it before they leave. The ebb and flow of capability or “human capital” within different sectors of the organization, and strategic thinking about its management and effective use, is something we assume that HR is more involved in and aware of these days. How much they are within any given organization, and how big a gap might exist between the business planning of management, and their awareness of the human side of being able to deliver on that business plan (i.e., the slack that HR needs to take up), will vary from place to place, and also time to time. But to the extent that people and systems are in place to assure it, it is the “reality check”.
I think a linchpin of that relationship between management and HR is the clarification, and concretization of the business goals. HR cannot second guess what management is trying to do. They require management to think about, and lay out, what the human capital needs are for each and every stage of the business plan. Only then can an adequate recruitment, retention, talent management, and staff development plan be achievable.
The relationship has to occur in the early stages of business planning, too, so THAT the business plan can be realistic. If developing or maintaining human capacity in some sector of the organization is shaky or complex or likely to require more time, then business plans have to be reconciled with that. You can’t simply generate an inspiring but unrealistic business plan and then dump it in the laps of HR and ask “Okay. Now how are you going to do that for me?”.
I also cannot stress strongly enough how critical role clarity is at all levels in this. Whenever change or growth happens, people need to know precisely what is expected of them, precisely what matters they have decision latitude in, what they don’t have latitude in, and where the decision latitude resides for different matters. Too often, role clarity is either not established, or is provided in a very limited or narrowly circumscribed way.
Mark Hammer always does a great job of highlighting important issues in the practice of HR. Take a look at his comment no HR and strategy.
Interesting article. I found some more information here