What is the bottom line mission
of a good HR unit or a savvy company’s
people-team? How does it really add real tangible
value to organizational
activities, breaking away from the traditional
slot of being payroll
masters, doling out salary cheques and receiving
unending flak for every
trivial human failure.
If you think of the profession
of Human Resources like that of Marketing or
Finance ( it’s usual competitors) , you
can begin to see that HR as a
function is in the unique position of being part
of people-power that fuels
a business. Any business, actually!
HR professionals who are able
to look at the company business strategy and
identify those internal processes and practices
that need to be newly
created or amended to support the business are
poised to make a leapfrog.
That’s the only way forward. Change management
starts with the HR
professionals themselves raising their performance
bars. Quite simply,
because the entire success story gets scripted
by how HR gets the right team
going. Not just by recruiting right talent, but
getting them to stay . And
perform.
A word of caution, though. Value
additions does not stop at identification
of the issues for strategic alignment, it also
blends into an overview of
the dynamics of the organization , it’s
vision and mission statements. Give
me one company’s latter high-sounding lofty
vision or goals that does not
have the people element in it. Or are some companies
presumptuous enough to
believe that their business success can be achieved
without quality human
intervention? The ability to identify the communication
and human
interventions that need to take place to support
business activity with a
vibrant and engaged workforce, is today a required
competence of HR
practitioners. Employee engagement is no longer
just a passing buzzword or
a fashionable management quote.
For a long time now, CEOs, business
leaders and management thinkers have
been repeatedly saying that people are an organization’s
most valuable asset
et al. It is time for HR pros to now seize the
opportunity and confidently
establish their credentials.
In an age of quick-fire M&A,
where an MTN can suddenly switch overnight from
a Reliance merger deal to a Bharati Airtel one
, one can imagine the
turbulence on employee minds in all three organizations.
. Or take the
Yahoo-Microsoft-Google impasse, which can have
implications for management
at all levels. Even the Ranbaxy acquisition by
Daichi is fraught with
serious HR challenges. The actual demand of time
and space for
organizational realization that people really
are the cornerstone
responsible for business success , and that a
good CEO and even a great
leadership team cannot do it alone is crucial
for new management thinking.
We need to understand that when change radically
happens it takes twice as
long and is thrice as painful for those trying
to live through it than if it
can be supported and introduced properly and with
sensitivity within the
organization. Though all things around us change,
most changes are really
gradual and we take them on little by little.
Usually organizational
change needs to be swift to be successful. If
we are not organizationally
change savvy and supported by HR’s advocacy
and agent role, it’s ability to
communicate and get buy-in from employees, we
may lose a good many of our
talented and key people along the way . And that
can have not- so-pleasant
consequences for the profit crunchers.
What does this really mean for
HR? It means that HR must be more focused on
the long term and strategic needs of the business
rather than of the paper
processes that support them. To start with, HR
pros need to look in the
mirror. And see a robust, confident , cheery,
professional and
business-like reflection. That will be a good
start.
Sanjay Jha
Jha is Executive Director of Walchand Talent First
( Dale Carnegie Training
and SHRM Training and Development Partner) |