The next generation of HR leaders: Rethinking retention

You are what you measure, and human resources professionals have a front seat when it comes to seeing which career development strategies are the most successful. HR people are in arguably the best position to understand which behaviours employers will encourage, tolerate or reward.

So when HR professionals move on to new opportunities at other companies, there is sometimes the perception that they might have moved on too early. Perhaps this is not a problem just within HR, so much as an indicator of what the business world encourages all employees to do. So, do HR professionals change jobs too early? What turnover should we have?

With many years of experience in recruiting HR specialists, I often see people approach their career development strategically. High achievers try to only accept new positions with great prospects. They move to where a potential employer's HR department has a great professional reputation or where they are about to be involved in a key business initiative or program, or where the head of HR has a strong reputation and HR is well regarded within the company.

Changing employers can be a double-edged sword though. Writing in the July Harvard Business Review, Professor Monika Hamori argues that job hopping is more likely to result in a demotion; that one in three job changes are sideways shifts; that a move to a larger company results in a backwards career step in a quarter of cases; and that generalised experience is rewarded more than specialisations. However, HR practitioners constantly observe the choices of others and are in a position to see what works and what doesn't: I would suggest that they're much less likely to make a wrong turn than others.

Business leaders often say it is 'too early' when an HR practitioner leaves after a couple of years in the business. But with the typical turnover across industries being around 18% per annum, the average tenure is two years in any case. So is it really about the HR person leaving after two or three years?

Way back in 1997, Dr Peter Saul suggested four metrics for measuring HR success: its execution of strategy; building and maintaining an efficient infrastructure; optimising employee commitment and capability; and creating a continually renewing organisation. In other words, HR is the function that keeps the human 'machinery' of the organisation operating at peak effectiveness. Yet according to research conducted in 2007 by the Australian Human Resources Institute, most businesses do not understand what the HR department does.

Perhaps the underlying problem is that HR has become too insular in the past 10 years: the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania found that while only 40% of HR people had come from another specialisation in 1999, this shrunk to 20% by 2009. Could it be that HR departments are losing their ability to communicate their successes and drive their connectivity with others in the business because of a lack of cross-pollination?

Let us change our thinking from being the issue to being just one part of the equation. If we are what we measure, then HR needs to be measured and rewarded by employers in terms of overall value rather than judging it in terms of turnover. Perhaps we seriously need to consider improving the flow
of talent between HR and other functions. In the long run that is a great way to ensure that HR's value will be better understood and appreciated by the whole business.

About the author

David Owens is managing director, HR Partners. HR Partners is synonymous with HR recruitment. We operate from offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. HR Partners is linked closely to the UK-based Digby Morgan Consulting and our brand holds a prominent position in the HR recruitment sector. We increasingly provide recruitment expertise to Australian as well as Asia Pacific based clients. Recruiting permanent and contract HR professionals, HR Partners provides a range of tailored recruitment solutions to meet our clients' needs. Connecting top talent with Opportunity. Visit www.hrpartners.com.au or call Sydney 02 9019 1600, Melbourne 03 9603 0601, Brisbane 07 3009 3800 for further information

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