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Unless
you are located in a cave, it is impossible for you not to
have heard your organization proclaim that people are your
greatest asset. With
that as the mantra, how is it that the professionals whose
role it is to hire, train, retain, motivate and develop
these assets are not valued members of the executive teams
and are rarely invited to a seat at the business
roundtable?
I
submit to you that it is because we HR professionals do
not sell ourselves…we sell ourselves short.
We see our competencies and accountabilities as
less worthy of focus. Let me share with you how changing
our attitudes about our career, our role and our
importance to the organization can allow us to play a
strategic role and achieve the business results our CEOs
are looking for.
The
imperatives that make HR truly important in the long run
continue to be critical to the business.
Organizations need reliable ways to get, keep and
motivate the right people.
As a matter of fact, I would argue that the true
value of people is appreciated in this economic climate
and uncertain global situation more than ever.
Research has confirmed and companies are
acknowledging the connection between being a good place to
work and being a successful company.
This is a time for good HR to get even better.
What will make the difference are less rhetoric and
more deliverables. Results
are what get attention and the closer those results are in
sync with the strategic business objectives the more
valued they are.
Human
Resources professionals are often urged to speak the
language of business in order to take a meaningful place
in top management ranks.
But have we ever considered how important it is for
top executives to understand the language of human
resources so we can collaborate to build high performance
organizations? We
need to teach our CEOs and CFOs our language and educate
them about our discipline. This cannot be done if we
don’t believe what we do is critical to the business.
It’s all about attitude…HR with an attitude.
We need to reach across the silos to build bridges
so that a cross-functional mindset develops which makes
the organization more responsive to change and more nibble
in the marketplace.
If
superior talent is tomorrow’s prime source of
competitive advantage, then the people who find and
develop that talent must be key to the business.
Right? Just
select for talent, define the right outcomes, focus on
strengths and encourage each person to find the right fit,
and excellence will follow.
Sounds easy but it is not that simple.
We struggle between the competing interests of the
company, the customer, the employee and even our own.
That balance is difficult to maintain.
And we can only change things one employee at a
time, one conversation at a time, one manager at a time.
Employees
are looking to their workplace to provide them with a
sense of meaning and identity.
They want to be recognized as individuals.
We Human Resources professionals can create the
kind of environment where each person comes to know his or
her strengths and uses them productively.
Start
by creating a distinct vision for the HR side of business
that defines what you will deliverable.
The HR leadership must communicate the whys and the
hows so employees understand, are accountable and are
rewarded when they deliver.
People will buy into that vision and come together
to form a competent and capable workforce that is equipped
to do its job, drive financial results, make decisions and
contribute.
Competitive
advantage results from an organization’s ability to do
something that adds value from the customer’s
perspective and that is difficult for a competitor to
imitate. HR
must build the capabilities that provide this advantage
and ensure that there is organizational alignment with
these. Each
strategic business decision must include a careful
analysis of the competencies and capabilities needed and
available in the human resources capital of the company.
That is what gives HR a sustainable advantage.
We
have to have the courage to disagree, to challenge and to
stand up for our convictions as we create new systems, new
careers and new cultures.
We can be the catalyst to make this happen.
Just as a good banker can create value for
shareholders and other stakeholders by raising, preserving
and leveraging financial capital, so a good HR manager can
leverage the value of human capital.
Human
capital has come to be recognized as a critical driver of
company value. Senior
HR executives must find new ways to enhance that
recognition. We
begin by growing our own credibility not waiting to be
asked but delivering solutions as we see them.
Every company wants to realize a return on its
assets. But
success cannot be based on any one factor, just as
marketplace success cannot be based on any one strategy.
Our peers in finance, technology and out in the field need
to understand we are a force to be reckoned with.
It
is a well- documented fact that in economic downturns,
training budgets take the quickest and deepest cuts.
Why? Because
the other executives do not understand the value of this
long-term investment and its returns to the bottom-line.
We have failed to measure and broadcast that to the
organization and they have little patience or interest to
figure it out for themselves.
HR must become more closely linked to strategy.
Only by measuring the value of human capital programs in
our organizations can that happen.
We must manage costs and be accountable for
financial results.
The
vital link between planning and people is Human Resources.
Each part of the HR function must be examined to
insure that it works with the strategy and through people.
Traditionally, the planning and the people aspects
of business have been separated into two different worlds.
Senior management deals with the strategy and the
human resources department deals with the people issues
…and they are separated by physical and philosophical
differences. Because
of this, often these two worlds work at cross-purposes.
A bold new strategic plan that has been crafted
with exquisite care has little chance of success if it is
not supported by the correct evaluation, compensation and
incentive systems.
Without the cross-functional synergies, each
process and each function is on a different page. The
fragmentation worsens as various initiatives proceed
independently of each other
- a pay plan here, a performance appraisal process
there, or a customer service program without connection to
either. These disconnects cause each of the programs to
fall short of its goals to move the business forward
because there is no mutually of focus.
Questions about fit, cost and value must be
considered against a backdrop of strategy and best
practices. These
are hard issues to undertake, requiring measurements of
costs and benefits, as well as the impact on employee
climate, retention and productivity.
So
how do we do this? By
creating an environment that encourages human capital
contribution. The
stage has to be set for a healthy environment by being
sure that both employees and the company agree on the
expectations for the job and the rewards if it is done
right. Today’s
employees value opportunities to learn.
With the competence to do the job effectively,
autonomy can thrive.
This creates the climate in which the business
makes money. A
culture of high achievement can be an extremely powerful
force to harness because it tends to feed off itself.
Winners prefer the company of other winners and the
net result is an escalating level of corporate potential.
We
need to move beyond the single bottom line and measure a
company by two standards of performance.
Financial profits alone aren’t enough. The
results also need to be good for the people in that
company. That
is where HR can show its true colors…where its attitudes
of professionalism, integrity and proactivity can open the
doors to the executive suites and to Boardrooms so HR
executives can move in as permanent residents.
Bramson
Advisors
provides practical solutions to the people problems that
keep CEOs and CFOs up at night.
Ruth Bramson, its President, is a senior management
executive with 20 years of leadership in human resources
at some of New England’s best companies. Clients
range from $20 to $2billion organizations experiencing
change as the result of new leadership, acquisition,
growth,
consolidation, or globalization of their business.
Examination, evaluation and execution guide the
strategies that provide their clients with seamless
transitions and successful bottom line results.
Bramsonadvisors@attbi.com
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