Comments for HRBlog

Comment on HRINZ Weekly Wrap-up by Rachel Walker

Rachel Walker — Tue, 21 May 2013 07:09:08 +0000

Bev

Great work both in writing the blog and with the 9to5s. These really were top class conferences in their own right, I know I’m already applying what I have learnt. Peter de Jager and Michael Henderson were superb in CHCH, and it was great having Michael give us news we may not want to hear about how HR people are viewed. His take away message for me was that we need to speak up when we are at the top table – I infer if we don’t we’ll loose our seat there.

Comment on Key issue for HR by Merv Johnston

Merv Johnston — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 00:31:27 +0000

What is HR supposed to achieve?
“The delivery of our HR strategy”.
Just as Marketing is required to deliver on the organisations marketing strategy and Finance is responsible for ensuring we are on track to meet the organisations financial strategies, HR should be seen as delivering on the people related strategies that are essential to deliver the organisational strategy.
Our functional strategies and therefore what we do are determined by our organisations strategy.
The big risk for HR and any other function in an organisation is we go off and determine and implement ‘best’ or ‘new’ practices without first determining whether this is required to deliver on our organisations strategic expectations. It would be foolish to have a marketing or sales or finance or R&D strategy that was not totally focused and integrated with the organisations strategic plans. Equally it is foolish to implement initiatives and people related systems and processes that have not been determined as a priority for delivering organisational strategy.
HR will identify what will be critical from a people perspective to deliver organisation strategy over the next 1-5 years, no different to identifying critical Marketing, Financial, Production, Sales or R&D strategies.
From these ‘critical people perspectives or strategies’ we will identify our HR drivers of business strategy for the next 1-5 years. These will vary depending on our organisations strategy.
Take the example of a Government Department going through a significant change in the services it delivers and the strategic focus of those services.
If we look at what this means in terms of HR strategy and what the critical people strategies will be it is likely that HR will identify as people related drivers of organisational strategy things like the following;
• A need to determine the ideal core competency and profile of its employees arising from this ‘new’ organisational strategy and to put in place the processes and systems that will nurture and develop core competencies in a useful way
• A need to implement Talent Management systems to attract, recruit, select and integrate employees with the potential to contribute to the ‘new’ organisation strategy and to evaluate and manage the performance of employees and to retain talented people.
• Ensure that the current HR architecture is integrated in a way that ensures strategic and operational excellence (in terms of our new organisational imperatives) based on strong management processes and systems.
HR will identify and prioritize the projects necessary to ensure the HR function delivers these people related drivers as its part in delivering the organisational strategy.
When the question is asked ‘what does HR do?’ it should be responded to by stating we ensure that the people related organisational strategies are delivered just like financial strategies, marketing and communication strategies , sales strategies etc. This occurs through a huge range of people related projects and initiatives all focusing on meeting organisational expectations.
The risk we run as HR practitioners is to focus what we do on HR best practice or particular structural or functional models for delivering HR. While these things are important what HR does is deliver the people related initiatives that support organisational strategy. It is arguable that this will vary in form and function in every organisation.
If we don’t have a clear HR strategy, intimately linked to and seen as delivering organisational strategy, other managers have the right to be asking what does HR do and achieve.

Comment on Flora’s Diary: HR Policies by TashHR

TashHR — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 02:24:08 +0000

Hi Flora,

One key aspect would be communication. You need to put a lot of effort into how the policies have changed, why they have changed, and what benefits will this provide to the employees and the managers. If you just change it without explaining why no one will care and they will see it as another thing that has happened with no input.
I would also suggest holding some workshops/seminars where you talk through the changes with managers. Explain to them what’s changed and how you would like them to communicate it to their staff members. Providing them with face to face time to explain the policy changes will be really useful and allow them to ask questions on how best to explain this to their staff.
Another suggestion – create a team briefing; an outline of the changes of the policy which you provide to managers to mention at their team meetings. This will put responsibility on the managers to ensure they understand the changes and to ensure that their staff are aware of the changes also.

Just some thoughts

TashHR

Comment on Flora’s Diary: HR Policies by Jacinta Penn

Jacinta Penn — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 04:45:56 +0000

I should add that for companies who want to have a bit more control over the content, aren’t keen on powerpoint design and aren’t at the point of using elearning tools yet, you may want to look at something like CentralLMS. Not only do you get the tracking but this LMS has a very simple online authoring tool you can have as an added option. You can add text, images, audio and quiz questions in a web page like format. Still very affordable, in the thousands rather than the tens of thousands depending on number of users and they are looking at options for small business.

Comment on Flora’s Diary: HR Policies by Jacinta Penn

Jacinta Penn — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 04:33:35 +0000

Hi Flora, I’ve just been talking about this issue with several HR practitioners and companies that I work with. I work in elearning and we are looking at ways to make policies more engaging as well as easy to track. Elearning LMS systems seem to fit this problem quite well. They track who has completely viewed the presentation, and can include web objects such as PDF forms which employees can digitally sign. For clients on a budget, they can use a system like Litmos, an engaging presentation created in Powerpoint (not a bullet point to death presentation) or a full elearning module, and a web link. Best yet, HR can easily track who has done it and who hasn’t, or better yet, assign Team Leaders to do so!

Comment on The HR Minion – The Breakthrough. by Sunshine Chick

Sunshine Chick — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 08:04:27 +0000

Hi HR Minion

Great post and really heartening to see that by demonstrating initiative, good things can happen!

I’ve been working in payroll for a number of years now but struggling to make the step over into HR proper. Looking forward to your next post and hopefully learning some new pearls of wisdom!

Keep up the great work!

Cheers
Sunshine Chick

Comment on The HR Minion – How it began…. by The HR Minion

The HR Minion — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 21:24:02 +0000

Hi Tony,
It was definitely essential when I was trying to get into HR, and having practical experience as well. But I will talk more about that as I go through.

Comment on The HR Minion – How it began…. by Tony

Tony — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 20:23:14 +0000

As an HR Manager I will be very interested in your blogs as when I am recruiting for HR staff I don’t see an HR qual as being essential.

Comment on The HR Minion – How it began…. by The HR Minion

The HR Minion — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 20:02:28 +0000

Hi there HR Minion.
Thanks for the welcome.

Comment on The HR Minion – How it began…. by The HR Minion

The HR Minion — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 20:01:53 +0000

Thank you Amanda. I think the honesty will help to engage with new HR Practitioners, and it is time that we really talk about the reality of working in HR.