What is the first thing an HR department should do to improve its value to the organization?
A seemingly simple question with what should be simple, straightforward answers. Maybe. It turns out that there are a lot of ideas out there for what HR should do, or could do, to be better – from the actionable, to the adoption of a different kind of mentality.
From where I sit, it’s all about the practitioner and life in the trenches. The idea of bettering HR is always done with an eye on what actually works in the “real world” and on a practical level… because in reality, great HR isn’t always easy within an organization where there are politics, and bureaucracy, and competing interests and brand concerns and ever shrinking budgets. And when you get a group of experts in the talent management space to weigh in on what HR could do to better itself, lots of ideas are thrown around. My knee jerk reaction when reading the contributions of our Editorial Advisory Board was that the ideas they have are nice and all but what’s a good idea worth if your everyday practitioner can’t execute and implement?
So back to what’s the single most important, and first thing, an HR department should do to improve its value to the organization?
And what does this practitioner think? Well, it turns out, you have to decide for yourself, and it will largely depend on where you’re starting from. With HR staff in place who have the right mentality, it might be turning to actionable strategies – the practical stuff. With the wrong HR staff in place, well, the reality is that you might have to start at ground zero and begin with cultivating the right mindset.
Know where you are to know where you’re going.
– Jessica Lee, Editor of the HRExaminer Editorial Advisory Board
Actionable Strategies —
Rusty Rueff, CEO and startup entrepreneur | Ensure that there is real, actionable, measurable and internally marketable linkages to what value HR has created with the objectives of the corporation and the other functions within the organization. HR has many areas where value is created, but too often the linkages are missed or ignored and without even realizing it, the HR team looks as though they are working in a silo or worse yet, misaligned with the priorities of the rest of the organization. If the CEO and other Functional Leaders can’t clearly see the linkage and communicate confidently in their own functional language what HR is doing and how it fits and helps them, then HR runs the risk of having the value they have created not only marginalized but ignored and potentially ridiculed.
Kris Dunn, HR executive, leading blogger | The world of work is evolving. Business opportunities will emerge, laws will change and strategies will be adjusted accordingly. At the heart of it all is a changing belief system held by the US and global worker, one that increasingly views itself as a free agent moving between gigs, be they contract, full-time, 3 months or 3 years in duration. That means your HR Function has to become less administrative and more sales oriented, with a focus on being able to deliver the talent the org needs, when it needs it. Farmer vs. Hunter. So the first thing an HR Department should do to increase the value it creates for an organization is to build a world class recruiting/talent acquisition function, then follow it up with a talent management strategy that managers will actually appreciate and use.
Todd Dewett, professor of leadership studies | Perform an 80/20 analysis on all HR policies and issues which consumed HR staff time in the past quarter, and how much time was spent on each. Have every member of the department classify each item on the list as either 80 or 20. An item labeled 80 is one deemed to be possibly important but not strategically important or vital for moving the company forward. An item labeled as a 20 is a truly important issue central to developing an amazing organization in the future. Your goal is to see how much agreement there is about which items are 80s and which are 20s, and, to the extent possible, compare the time spent on the 80s versus the 20s. The vast majority of time should be spent creating and enacting policies aimed at building an amazing talent pool and operating structure, not posturing defensively against potential future lawsuits or debating mundane operational rules.
Heather Bussing, employment lawyer and assumption kicker | HR needs to eliminate the employment relationship wherever possible. The employer-employee relationship is the most regulated, expensive, inefficient, paternal and dysfunctional relationship besides, well, families. But a company is not a family. It is a business. It is designed to do work and make money. The best way to do that is to give people the tools and authority to do the work and the direction to achieve the financial goals of the company. The most agile, efficient, cost effective relationship between a company and its workers is independent contractor. Granted. This is not legally possible in all cases where some positions require supervision and control. But many, even most, do not. A workforce of independent contractors creates a marketplace within the company – and marketplaces produce efficiency. Take a different take on talent supply chain management, focus on the actual work of the company and you’ll probably gain a new title.
A Consultative Approach —
Hank Stringer, startup entrepreneur and executive recruiter | Become consultative verses serving as an administrative ‘staffing’ partner. HR carries the responsibility to staff and retain great talent. Too often, for reasons including too much work and too little resources, this activity becomes a process of managing paper verses adding strategic value to a very important initiative. Taking the time to meet with hiring authorities, listening to and understanding their needs and how best to work with them to accomplish their goals is too often over looked. Don’t make this mistake. Take the time to consult and increase staffing value by which you can and will understand the strengths and weaknesses as well as the needs to ensure quality talent is in place at the right time to execute against your company’s strategic plans.
Neil McCormick, Australian workforce planning guru | Stop thinking like a cost centre! HR Departments need to position themselves as a value-added consultancy servicing a diverse range of clients. If HR were to act as and follow the logic of a consultancy they will automatically start to gain a detailed understanding of what the organisation perceives it needs. From this understanding and their human resource expertise, they can assist in fine tune the requirements and in turn, the results. They will also then need to review what they do. Any good consultancy concentrates on its area of expertise and looks to off-load activities that are not economic, efficient nor effective. Finally, in acting as a consultancy, the HR Department needs to abandon HR centric language and reporting and communicate only in terms of organisational objectives; the triggers that are critical to leadership and delivery of objectives.
A Focus on the Future —
Jay Cross, learning guru | Executives only care about HR as it relates to the future. Their interest is in moving the corporation forward. The first thing an HR Department should do is to find out where the senior leaders of the business think they are going, for that’s where corporate value will be created. They should form close partnerships with their stakeholders and concentrate on solving their problems. This is a wildly different orientation than worrying about next week and putting out fires. Invest most of your efforts in creating the future your leaders are shooting for.
Paul Hebert, CEO of incentive strategy & influence design firm | The real value is in preparing for, anticipating and responding to future Human Resource requirements. The value HR creates for the company is understanding what each department (or future department) will need in their people (skill sets, knowledge, training, etc.) and building the pipeline for future talent needs so the right talent is available when the business changes. HR is typically caught flat-footed when a company changes or adjusts its overall strategy because either the leadership doesn’t think strategy and HR are connected or HR isn’t looking and listening for the clues that indicate the future needs of the company.
Claudia Faust, CEO candidate experience company | An HR Department must first understand the overreaching short and long term goal(s) of the business, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of its current talent base and market conditions. I consider “understand” an active rather than passive verb, demonstrated by the development and management of strong relationships with every function of the business. I also consider that HR has an obligation to drive consensus and collective clarity about goals where gaps or discrepancies exist. With a firm foundation in these areas, HR can then strategically do its primary job: that of driving talent attraction, acquisition, and lifecycle management to fuel the business in meeting its goals.
