Reinventing Human Resources Departments

Like many of us today I spend my share of time on social media sites like LinkedIn, Digg, Facebook and others.

LinkedIn particularly I find to be a great forum for exchanging ideas, asking and answering questions and just "chatting" with colleagues. One of the things I find disappointing is that I still see frequently on LinkedIn are questions like:

• What sucks the most about your HR department?
• Does your HR department bring any value added to your organization
• How as an HR professional do I generate respect and credibility?

I have been in and around the HR profession for over thirty years and even though I have "progressed" to C level roles both in human resources and operating departments it pains me to hear discussion I heard when I was graduating from college and my advisor pleaded with me not to "waste" my talent in Personnel.

As recently as yesterday I was with a colleague in a related field who lamented that when he attends local SHRM meetings the discussion is mostly defensive or compliance oriented rather than discussing solutions or being proactive.

Human Resources needs to re-define itself and the timing is no more critical than today.

A recent article I read made a statement I agree with whole heartedly and have been preaching for the last 36 months or more:

Employee engagement and retention are emerging as two of the biggest challenges facing business in the next decade!

Because of the economic downturn many C level executives are doing what they have always done during times of economic uncertainty; focusing on the numbers. They assume because of high unemployment that employees are just grateful to be employed or replacement talent is readily available. This is both horribly wrong and short term thinking for a number of reasons:

• Recent studies find employee satisfaction is at one of its lowest points in 50 years!
• The U.S. economy is estimated to be operating at a 30% rate of efficiency with further erosion occurring because of loss of trust stemming from layoffs and economic insecurity.
• Employee turnover is estimated to cost the U.S. economy $5 trillion annually
• The costs of "presenteeism"; employees who are employed, but largely un-engaged is estimated at another $200 billion annually.

That's right, those numbers are trillion with a "t" and billion with a "b". One could conjecture that fixing these issues could fund a national health care initiative and probably go along way to solve funding issues in education, poverty and other areas.

So what can HR professionals and departments do to help address these issues and increase their stature and contribution, I would submit several things:

Change your role

I expected my HR teams to provide three primary services to our internal clients: technical expertise, facilitation, and project management. Our role is to provide the right tools to management to select, motivate, and retain the right staff. They are responsible to learn and use those tools. I don't expect managers to be experts in ERISA or COBRA, but basic competencies like setting expectations, giving feedback, taking corrective action, and linking individual goals to organizational goals are management competencies, not HR competencies.

Develop and implement an employment brand

Engagement starts with the hiring and selection process. Organizations that achieve excellence are clear about their brand internally and externally. Candidates and employees know what the organization stands for in terms of values and vision. They may be flexible about process, but they are ruthless about adherence to those values and principles.

Create a pipeline

Great HR organizations are constantly monitoring their "pipeline" of talent. They are proactive not reactive. If turnover or growth occurs they have strategies in place to quickly identify and deploy the right talent. They don't scramble.

Integrate your systems

I am old enough to remember when the total quality movement was "new". You didn't inspect quality in, you built it in. So many times I see organizations approach their HR initiatives serially; we will work on our recruiting system this year, compensation next year, performance management next year, etc. It doesn't work. These systems must be integrated and more importantly they must link clearly and directly to your business strategy.

Foster and cultivate a culture of innovation

You are either moving forward or you are regressing. Great companies don't follow best practices, they create them. They don't wait for the competition to come up with the next idea, they constantly challenge their own thinking and reinvent themselves. I personally ascribe to that model by doing some of the following:

• Hiring the "right" people
• Creating an optimal environment
• Managing "whole" people
• Moving from compliance to "commitment"

If you want to know why I encourage you to do these things right now, here are my reasons:

• Demand for talent- over the next 15 years the demand for “experienced” talent will increase by 25% and the supply is expected to decrease by 15%!
• Less than 30% of organizations worldwide have an engagement strategy today. Do you want to lead or follow?
• Engaged employees have a turnover rate 51% lower than un-engaged employees and a per capita productivity rate 18% higher.
• I guess my last reason would be that if you are an HR professional aren't you tired of sitting in the cheap seats? This is our time, it is up to us to take it.