The Human
Resources (HR) Professional, whether he or she is an executive or a leader, is
a critical person in organization building. If the competitive advantage of an
organization is derived from its people, the Human Resources department, and
its constituent professionals are a critical enabler of the competitive
advantage of the firm. This is not to paper over the direct contributions of
various line and staff functions such as Research & Development,
Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Sales & Marketing, Quality & Regulatory,
Safety, Health & Environment, Business Planning & Development,
Information Technology, Finance and Secretarial & Compliance (and several
other functions and sub-functions) to the competitive advantage. While each of
the functions tends to be domain-specific with reference to the people
function, only HR plays an all-encompassing role in organization development,
across all domains.
HR domain
itself has evolved, substantially over the years, from being a mere Personnel
and Administration department to becoming today’s Human Resources department
that is considered more a business partner. In keeping with this evolution,
heads of HR are now a part of the C Suite, with impressive titling, for example
Chief people Officer (CPO) or Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO). At the same
time, there has also been a realization within the line and staff functional
leaders that people management is one of their key responsibilities too. Of the
commonly held HR responsibilities such as Recruitment, Training &
Development, Performance Management, Compensation Administration, and
Organization Design & Development, line and staff functions are taking an
increasingly shared responsibility with the HR function. This trend is
accentuated with scale as well as decentralization, whether at business or site
level. This has led to lack of clarity on decision rights and responsibilities,
with conflicts as well.
Paradoxes abound
A major facet
of a true HR professional is one of managing paradoxes skilfully. Like the CEO
of a firm who has such paradoxical imperatives (for example, building
businesses and closing businesses simultaneously), the CPO too faces some challenging
paradoxes. First and foremost, one of the key aspects of HR is organizational
culture, which can only be felt and experienced, and not metricised and
measured. Second, HR is required to touch the heart but most of the financial
decisions of business are made by the head. Third, organization is expected to
precede other infrastructure which, in turn, must precede business but HR is
usually brought into play late in new businesses, mergers and acquisitions.
Fourth, HR is required to promote transparency but is often faced with
situations where it cannot disclose or receive information on developments
freely. Fifth, while factors such as workplace ambience, title weight, job
security etc., are supposed to be hygiene factors, they tend to demand
disproportionate attention and time too.
More than the
above five, HR has to grapple with the challenge of developing talent to the
maximum extent possible from within (without sub-optimised performance that
inbreeding could cause) while also bringing in the leading-edge industry talent
(without causing disharmony and disaffection). There is a clear need for HR to
be the ‘best of the best’ domains in an organization, and emerge as a role
model. This has to be accomplished in the face of a rather truncated view that
could exist, within HR and outside, that HR’s role is to find and recruit people,
fix and review salaries, identify and solve relational problems, train and
develop people (usually on shoestring budgets). This has also to be
accomplished without a large HR team, as often HR, like any other corporate
team, is seen to be a cost to be catered to than as a value to be welcomed. The
final challenge is that being a part of the C Suite, and close to the CEO, but still
not a part of the direct business delivery value chain, HR gets to be drawn
into top level organizational dynamics, including succession planning at the
senior levels, with their own political and emotional challenges.
Managing paradoxes
There are no
set methods to manage paradoxes but by doing a few things right, the CPO and
the HR function can achieve and maintain a stature of authentic leadership for
themselves that would make paradox management easy and harmonious. These are as
follows.
Employee as customer
As discussed
initially, a fundamental task of HR is to recruit and induct people. Usually,
HR is the first interface that a prospective candidate has with the
organization; likewise HR is the lens through which the organization can see
and feel the outside world. Mahatma Gandhi held customer as being the very
reason for a company’s existence. Likewise, an employee is as valuable to the
organization as a customer is to business. HR leaders and executives should
treat every prospective candidate with utmost care, respect and objectivity.
Not only would this be a dutiful activity but would lay the foundation for an
extremely positive of view of the company by the candidates, and eventually by
the employees. This approach must be a part of the DNA of HR, continuing with
individual employees and the teams.
Business as process
Typically, HR
processes are considered unique to HR domain just as quality processes are to
the Quality department and production processes to Manufacturing, and so on.
The relevant fact is that unless HR is well educated on the business value
chain it would not be able to understand the real talent requirements and
select the right talent. Effective recruitment is more than creation of slick
job specifications; it requires a feel for the value chain. All HR executives
must make it a point to spend time in R&D laboratories, plants and
marketplace to understand the products, processes of manufacture and delivery,
and the customer needs. While line executives take primary responsibility in
the respective domains, a business savvy HR executive can be an exceptionally
effective business partner.
Learning as development
Most companies
provide several training and development opportunities. Irrespective of the
industry, the current expectation is for superior skill levels backed by
compliance to standard operating procedures. This alone would ensure high
quality and support global standards. Most programmes, however, look at learning
as a standalone objective of the programmes with development taking place as a
follow-on activity on the job. The paradigm needs to be reversed in that actual
on-the-job experiences and expectations must lead to learning programmes which
must be evaluated immediately for their delivery on development. Also, rather
than deploy generic canned programmes, the internal trainers must learn about
the business and business processes, and develop firm-specific and business-specific
content.
Performance as journey
In an earlier blog
post, the author has brought out the deficiencies of performance management as
is commonly practiced in organizations. Reference may be made to “Vaunted Bell
Curve: Wanted Culture Verve?”, Strategy Musings, April 20, 2016 (http://cbrao2008.blogspot.in/2016/04/vaunted-bell-curve-instead-culture-verve.html).
Performance of employees is not to be measured, as an event outcome; it should
not also be straightjacketed as an annual review. Performance review needs to
be a continuous journey wherein supervisors and employees collaboratively
discuss how to maximize performance of teams and the firm. It should not be
judgemental and condescending on individual employees, teams and managers,
without an appreciation of the total business and operational context. This
requires the HR professional to partner the business leaders in their operational
performance as well as business development.
Recognitions as rewards
The outcome of a
performance review process invariably tends to be universal merit increases,
and selective promotions. These certainly play a very important role in the
employees feeling rewarded for their work and to be hopeful of career growth.
These, however, are not real recognitions in the complete sense; more so in
organizations which seek to keep such matters confidential. In organizations,
the process of dispensation of such rewards, whether generous or frugal, tends
to be a major source of grape-wine gossip, fuelled by an embarrassed
non-disclosure. While these kinks cannot
be avoided, an objective HR system should be so convinced of its objectivity
that it does not point to extraneous triggers or constraints as the causes for
missed expectations. A paradigm in which open recognition of achievements in
team meetings (without monetary rewards in such events) could nurture a more
authentic, recognition climate. At the same time, HR must have the power to
design an explicit linkage between business performance and team rewards.
Organization as ecosystem
A true HR
professional helps in making an organization a lively and vibrant ecosystem.
This is a concept greater than teamwork or team rewards, although team
interactions are superior to individual relationships. An ecosystem is a
habitat in which life thrives naturally. Organizations are synthetic creations
to meet business ends but involving people competencies and emotions. Being a
team, department, business etc., goes only half-way in creating a nurturing
environment. The other half is made up by people feeling wanted, aligned, and
achieving, with a fair balance between professional work and personal life.
There must be enough adrenalin in people to achieve competitiveness but there
must also be enough mindfulness amongst them not to be overly cluttered and
stressed. Creation of an organizational ecosystem that nurtures creativity,
innovation, competence and accomplishment in a mindful manner is the ultimate
art for the HR leader.
HR leader as a Guru
The above has
served to lay out the sterling qualities a HR leader must possess to nurture an
ecosystem of positive culture rather than an organization of just material
goals and transactional processes. To be able to lead the HR function, and also
guide the CEO in such path, the HR leader has to be more of a mindful,
thoughtful and reflective person than a leader of systems and processes.
Whether a HR leader does that by himself/herself or seeks the help of gurus of
business spirituality (for example, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev) is a matter of
choice. Not every organization can afford a Jaggi Vasudev; nor can one Jaggi
Vasudev serve the needs of the several thousands of organizations needing such
guidance. The choice, therefore, is obvious! The CPOs and the CEOs (ideally,
all the CXOs) themselves must embark on a personal journey of transformation to
be mindful, introspective, thoughtful and reflective in whatever they say and
do in order to be able to facilitate such positive practices in the broader
organization development.
This is easier
said than done. Human beings are genetically wired and behaviourally
conditioned to be judgemental. As one attains higher positions in
organizations, the tendency to be judgemental only increases. Many of the HR
practices such as selection and recruitment, appraisal and compensation,
training and development, and so on are prone to judgement. As leaders facing
increasing clutter in their professional life but are expected to take quicker
decisions, being judgemental (several times with beaming righteousness) becomes
both fallacious and stressful. Mindfulness as a practice involving conscious slowing
down and meditated self-introspection can declutter and destress one’s mind, reduce
stressfulness, enhance cognitive abilities and improve judgemental
capabilities. The CPO of an organization has a particularly challenging
responsibility in initiating the mindfulness movement in an organization as he
is expected to mediate and harmonize three important and complex behaviours: human
emotional behaviour, organizational group behaviour and corporate business
behaviour. The effort for embedding mindful leadership is certainly worth the competitive
advantage and sustainable success it would bring to organizations.
Posted by Dr CB
Rao on April 27, 2016
Author’s Note:
This blog post is inspired by the author’s observation of, and
association with, Ken Meyers, Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources
Officer of Hospira, Inc (now, a Pfizer Company) between 2010 and 2015. Ken is
currently SVP and CHRO of Hill-Rom Holdings, Inc. Ken has been a passionate advocate
of mindfulness and reflection as critical enablers of effective leadership.
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