CREATING A CREDIBLE HR ORGANISATION

pic from http://virtualmarketingofficer.com/

Very often we have heard of why people hate HR. One of the recent ones which shocked me was an article that appeared in HBR written by Ram Charan who is one of the leading thinkers in the management space. His books which recently has been very focused on people related issues (  The Execution , Game Changers,  Talent Masters etc) have been a great value add for any people manager. However I would not be surprised at why he or many others are frustrated with HR, although I felt that a sweeping statement like “ Its time to say goodbye to the department of human resources” may have been misread by many people.

As it is often said in public policies that “ the people get the governments they desire”, it is true about human resources and its leadership too. Most often the HR departments that people get in many organisations is what the CEO’s , the management and the  employees really desire to have. Once a very senior CHRO told a group of us that he wants to bring in “GE practices at Wal-Mart budgets”. His intentions were absolutely nobles, but guess what-it’s not possible. It’s not possible because GE and Walmart are two different organisation having an entirely different purpose.  Wal-Mart’s mission statement is "We save people money, so they can live better". Now this means the HR department there will have to function different from GE which works on four principle of Imagine, Build, Solve and Lead. So in effect what you get from your HR department is what you really want ,and in all honesty that is what every company should aim for. Getting the right employees who finds a purpose to work for these companies  is the value add that HR can bring , but it should be noted that there cannot and may not be similar HR practices that will be followed in these companies who serve different purposes.

Dave Ulrich has countered many people including Ram Charan when they say it’s time to bid goodbye to HR using his 20-60-20 rule where he says one should focus on  “educating” the 60% of the HR folks who needs to move up the scale. I fully agree with Dave on this as I believe that it is this 60% of HR folks who needs to up skill and grow themselves to be true champions of business. I have myself encountered situations where I have at times doubted the value of HR , but then I guess rather than doubting the value add of HR I should probably be doubting whether it’s just the case of  trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.

There is always a huge proportion of so called HR folks who are doing administrative services. Many  business leaders may not even be aware of the existence of these  folks who are actually the skeletal structure of the organisation but without them the organisations cannot function. Then there is the middle managers who interact on a day to day basis with business leaders and coordinate things between the administrative part of HR and business folks. They are a highly visible role and this is where I would put the 60% that Dave referred to who may create an “impression” of HR and needs to up skill. These set of people along with the senior most HR leaders in the organisation should have one main competency that is essential for HR credibility and I would put that as “ entrepreneurial skills”. These skills should make you fit in exactly into the purpose of an organisation and if your entrepreneurial skills don’t fit into the company’s purpose of existence then you would have to find one that fits you so that credibility is not compromised.

It is important for business managers and HR professionals to have a real understanding and dialogue of what HR “should” mean to them. This would help the organisation have a right fit as I have seen often that there is a disconnect between what you really want vs what you are willing to invest especially when it comes to people.  This would help ensure that you can hire the right kind of  HR leader and she/ he can can in turn design an HR organisation which really is made of the kind of people who is inclined to support the purpose and mission of your organisation.