Imagine if you will as you head to your HR department, there is a long queue with people and departments lined up with a need for Human Capital Solutioning.
However, this is very rarely the case. Ensuring that your organization has a well-equipped and strategic focused HR team should be extremely high on every CEO’s and business leader’s priorities. The problem is that; instead; they tend to see HR as – at best a department there to functional problems, and at worst – a drain on resources with little or no benefit to the business.
For far too long, HR has been seen as a brake to the company’s progress, not the means by which it can achieve its strategic goals.
It is time to reinforce the true meaning – and value – of HR business partnerships.
The Business Wheel Equation
In essence, business and a business’ goals are very simple, no matter what industry you are in. Organizations create strategic goals that will increase revenue, market share etc. That goal is met if their customers are aligned with their offering. The next step is having the workforce that is developed to meet those goals. Thus, in order for a company to reach their goals, the workforce is the integral part. If you can get those two sides of that very simple equation right, everything else will fall into place.
The problem that arises if one or both of these objectives are not met. CEO’s tend to like and concentrate their time, efforts – and praise – on the so called “business people”. These are the sales teams, the product and business managers, as they are seen as obviously bringing in the money ‘directly’ to the company.
On the other side of the coin, CEO’s don’t put as much weight onto the HR department’s and it ability to play a role in that equation. Their brand is seen as a tactical endeavor as opposed to a true strategic partner in line with the other “business people”.
Because of this, when a business achieves its targets it is the operations teams that gets the credit, while if it fails to hit them, the blame is more often shifted outwards in a lot of cases to the HR team. When this happens, it is often accompanied by the cry of “we need more people” or the other end of the spectrum, “we need to adjust the workforce”.
The Daily Challenges for Organizations
The two main goals of a business mentioned earlier can only be achieved if a lot of other factors are in place and are working well. Unfortunately, there are many other issues that occur in the workplace that can prevent this from happening. Examples of these include talent management, conflicts between managers and employees, succession planning, diversity etc.
Every one of these issues has the potential to have a very real, and a very negative impact on the business’ overall performance, and HR is the only place where those issues will be confronted. We are the Human Capital experts embedded into our organization and our role is to arrive at solutions that will enable our organizations to meet their goals.
HR Reality: Success breeds more success
Today’s HR departments need to not only be more proactive in terms of producing tangible results for the company. They need to establish themselves as Strategic HR Business Partners. Each success in human capital solutioning breeds more success.
This will change people’s perception to the role within and will mean they will get less resistance, and more support going forward. They need to step up and concentrate on issues such as developing a Human Capital Plan that syncs with the organizational goals. Building a workforce model based on the organizational goals is the first step.
Resistance of having a Modern HR
A successful and well-functioning HR department will shine a spotlight on the areas of the business not performing well. The Human Capital plan could reveal the business gaps, skills gaps, talent gaps of the organization.
This is the Modern HR that adapts to the needs of the organization. This is the Modern HR that becomes the human capital experts embedded into the organization.
Solutions Towards Achieving a Modern Performing HR Department
In order to reach brand awareness of HR, HR professionals need to understand the business and the issues and challenges it faces. Their role is a partner/advisor to the organization. They must strive to build HR consultancy within.
On the flip side, when this happens management would gladly provide a seat for HR in executive meetings. This will have the double benefit of HR being involved in crucial decision making processes, and will also raise the department’s profile.
The Golden Key
Realistically, in order for these things to happen, the changes need to come from the very top. That person who sits at the top of the HR pyramid needs to not only recognise the power and benefit of having a modern HR department, but they also need to put actions in place so that the department is central to the business’ development, progress and success.