Comments on: HR Capacity Building

By: Jason Martin

Jason Martin — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 15:04:51 +0000

Insert a blank for ‘HR’ and you have a good strategy for any interaction – “Don’t just bash _____. Help it/them succeed.”

By: Patrick hughes

Patrick hughes — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 13:31:13 +0000

this is fascinating for a non – HR professional. It’s reasonable for you to ask “people managers” , as you put it to receive the pass; the trick is to make sure it’s not a ‘hospital” pass. My experience of large ( 10K plus) organisations in all sectors is that when they recruit good people into support services ( really sorry but I can’t think of a better expression ) , notably HR and Finance, those functions begin to modernise themselves through ICT investment and professionalisation. The usual impact is that they can make a strong business case that they add high value, paid for by losing headcount of their own though usually in junior positions. At the same time operational managers increasingly engage through systems rather than personal contact. ineffect work moves from support to frontline without any movement of resource. Now I’m not arguing that savings can’t be made and HR shouldn’t move towards high value functions. but it’s not uncommon for HRDs to claim the glory of all this without acknowledging their impact on the wider business. please tell me I’m wrong!

By: Carol Anderson

Carol Anderson — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 12:39:43 +0000

Thanks for posting this, and for highlighting Ashkenas’ blog. I made a comment over there that talks to HR leaders gaining competence in technology and systems thinking. You make a very good point, though, about HR feeling as if their role in doing the work of the manager lends to their longevity.

I’ve been a senior leader in HR (never CHRO) for over 30 years, mostly in organizations with over 10,000 employees, in retail, government, banking, financial services and healthcare, and have served as an external consultant to additional industries. I say that only because I only once have been part of a leadership team that worked together, and that was in retail in the 1980s.

Back then, retail was way ahead of its time because we had to be. Margins were small, employees were scarce, and joined a retail department store either “until they got a real job” or to get the discount.

Looking back at these experiences, I can see three things that were different about that HR team. I have seen one or two since, but never all three together.

1.) HR team members had experience on the selling floor. Rarely were HR staff hired without retail sales experience, and for those few of us who didn’t have it, we worked on the sales floor from the Thursday after Thanksgiving until Christmas eve, and then went back in January and July to help with the inventory process. We KNEW retail.

2.) The top HR leader had a strong vision, which was to drive “all things people”. When conversations occurred about changes to process, HR was part of the dialogue – at the demand of the CEO who recognized that HR wasn’t about comp, benefits, or recruiting, but about hiring and developing the best workforce possible.

3.) The HR Development side of HR was strong, capable and involved. Back then, I was in Comp, Benefits and Recruitment but my counterpart in HRD knew what we were doing in compensation and we knew what she was doing in all facets of developing the workforce. Somehow we avoided the persistent siloes that exist today.

It also bears mentioning that we still had “management training programs” which hired eager, bright graduates and rotated them through every facet of the business, including HR.

I wrote on Ashkenas’ blog that I see technology and systems thinking as key competencies of HR today. It feels to me, having watched the evolution for so many years, that HR has fallen into the trap of too much to do, and not enough time to be strategic. It takes a strong, visionary leader to pull their team out of the weeds to look strategically, while still keeping the basic duties going.

It will be interesting to see the follow up comments on this topic.