If people think that their HR Department is not contributing enough to the company’s bottom line, they probably aren’t, but they should be. I notice that this is usually not part of what the company expects from the department but it should be.
The biggest topics in Management planning activities are financial, marketing, sales and operations strategies and plans. HR is often an uncomfortable-wish-we-could-end-this-presentation-soon kind of topic that people except HRD (sometimes even HRD) care the least about. And if there is any concern about the HR plan, it’s the annoyed wonderment about how much money will go down the drain because of the stated HR-related initiatives. No wonder HR initiatives are often the first to go if a company decides to cut cost.
But at the end of the day, the usual suspect for the failure of all the other strategies boil down to one, the inability of PEOPLE to execute. Remember HR?
Why does it happen? Why is HR Management and Development initiatives rarely given priority in company’s plans? It is because it is one of the least understood and most difficult to measure in terms of effectiveness. There is this ambivalent feeling about HR initiatives in a sense that investing in them does not guarantee success while not investing in them does not guarantee failure. Because unlike other company resources, people are thinking, creative and resourceful creatures that act based on their own motivations. Each person’s motivation can be different from others hence motivating them could prove to be a daunting task.
Daunting is right but impossible,it is not. People management is the most challenging part of a business and succeeding in it can become the company’s source of competitive advantage. If a company can have its people implement plans with unity, skill and effectivenes, they are already ahead of the pack because most companies are incapable of making it happen. It is for this reason that I believe companies should start building their capability to manage their human capital.
Where to start? At the very top – is the answer, specially if the current HR does not have the ability to lead the organization towards establishing a more effective people management strategy. CEOs need to have a complete appreciation of the entire Human Resource Management spectrum – from attracting talents to using people management tools to align people’s behavior and performance with what the company needs to succeed. Managers need to completely understand how their roles connect with the HR department. A partnership should be built between all the company’s managers and HR because that is the only way for them to attract, manage and retain desirable talents.
The most important initial investment in people management is building an HR team that can lead or facilitate the implementation of a strategic HR plan. It is sad to note that many HR departments the country are still glorified personnel admin departments whose main focus is keeping administrative transactions accurate and efficient. Even those who are actively involved in training treat a training event as a transaction measured as done or not done rather than as a means to an end measured by its effectiveness to deliver the desired result. Without a capable HR department, it is difficult to make people management strategy work.
What should be included in your people management strategy?
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Recruitment and on-boarding
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Training and development
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Performance management
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Career and succession planning
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Employee engagement
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Employee retention
Call us to find out how ExeQserve can help you establish an aligned human resource management and development strategy.
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