MANY HR functions are struggling to transform themselves from administrative/service centres into value-added business partners simply because of a lack of discipline and commitment to step out of the routine and make things happen, a local HR consulting firm believes.
MANY HR functions are struggling to transform themselves from administrative/service centres into value-added business partners simply because of a lack of discipline and commitment to step out of the routine and make things happen, a local HR consulting firm believes.
Instead, HR professionals require a willingness and desire to seriously confront the CEO and the executive team with an integrated business case that compels them to embrace and support the HR department and its potential contribution to organisational results.
“All too often I meet HR people who have become disillusioned, or even worse defeated, operating from a state of self-resignation,” said Stephen Moore, managing consultant for Optimum Performance.
“CEOs are seeking HR professionals who can develop programs and procedures that will optimise workforce performance thereby contributing to the achievement of business plans and annual financial budgets.
“It’s not about fads, gimmicks, or the latest thinking – it’s about solid, well thought-out initiatives that will enable line mangers to achieve their business priorities and objectives.”
HR professionals also need to spend more time considering how they actually pitch their case in order to achieve real buy-in, he said.
“Just because they are passionate about their cause does not necessarily mean that their key customers are too. Just because they intimately understand their product, they should not assume that their customer has the same depth of knowledge,” Moore said.
“Products and services must be presented in a manner that captures attention, simplifies the concept, satisfies the customers needs, and demonstrates the benefits to the organisation.”
Moore recommended HR professionals evaluate and adopt five principles to assist them in becoming value-added business partners:
Optimising workforce performance: Clearly understand that the overriding purpose is to optimise workforce performance.
Competing for (internal) customers’ business: Understand that today’s line manger is seeking to purchase goods and services from the HR team that will satisfy their needs and objectives, and that they are increasingly willing to find alternative providers/solutions if you do not meet their expectations.
ROI, or features and benefits to value add: Change your approach, from highlighting the features and benefits the organisation/customer will enjoy as a result of supporting/purchasing the latest HR initiative to developing a solid business case that reflects the estimated ROI, differentiating between direct, indirect and intangible returns.
What gets measured gets done: Recognise that line managers across the organisation evaluate and use data on a regular basis to run their business and that the HR team cannot afford to ‘play in a different sandpit’to everyone else.
Embrace, understand and leverage workforce data: Establish and maintain integrated HR reporting that reflects current organisational effectiveness in workforce management, where intervention is required, and thereafter where the HR department has contributed to enhanced performance and thereby the achievement of business plans and objectives.
