It’s Time for HR Professionals to Rise

I have always believed that story telling is the best way to share thoughts and best practices. 

This is a real life incident. I went for a conclave out of Delhi. The target audience was budding HR and L&D professionals. I was one of the speakers and was scheduled at the last.

Speakers from well known corporate attended the same.

One of the speaker said that in the long run HR will extinct. So in their organization they have a call center where employees can call and get their issues resolved.

I could see the faces of the audience getting red. One of them even asked who will give a personal touch if any employee is unwell or hospitalized. Everything is not possible online. The speaker could only say that it’s a top management decision and moreover every manager has to be an HR.

That’s how the discussion stopped.

Finally when my turn came. I did start the discussion with what the previous panel member said. He is absolutely right that HR will extinct. It is the ownership of all HR professionals to keep the function alive. If HR don’t rise and be a value addition for the organization... if employees don't feel the importance of an HR it would soon extinct. It is the responsibility of our educational system also to counsel students with a correct picture. Not saying that HR is a cool job... sitting job... best for certain group... it’s so sad. We don’t realize that CEO's and board depend on HR for doing so much strategic for which other departments might not have that time and space.Business leaders need HR leaders who are functionally knowledgeable and understand the business. HR leaders will be viewed as strategic partners who can help solve real problems if they:

• Use the business or entity      strategy to drive HR activities.
• Understand the business and      financial model.
• Know what drives success for      the business. Does business success depend on innovation, capital      utilization, customer connectivity, service excellence?
• Understand the business metrics      (such as profit, margin, ROI, free cash flow productivity) and what drives      them. For example, if your company uses Total Shareholder Return (TSR) as a key performance metric, the HR leader should      know the specific metrics that drive TSR.
• Determine the skills and      capabilities that are needed to deliver the business strategies.
• Identify the top talent and      match them to business-critical roles.
• Determine the organizational      risks that could jeopardize the company’s business success.
• Design organizations that      deliver outstanding business results.

HR leaders need to offer solutions to business problems. Business leaders don’t want to hear what they can’t do. Business leaders want thoughtful, sound, and creative solutions to problems. If HR leaders combine their knowledge of the business with their understanding of the human capital that drives the business, new approaches and solutions can be presented.

Changing the strategy, changing the business model, changing the culture, and introducing innovation are all methods for changing the trajectory of the business. All require making significant changes to the talent or organizational design in some or all parts of the organization, and the HR leader is the one best qualified to help the business leader with the change.

So bottom line is we all know that we have to rise, be strategic.