Take those opportunities and get recognised in HR
By Paul McCarthy
Every now and again, when you have just read yet another article in an HR magazine where a correspondent whimpers away about the lack of recognition for HR and then indulges in a bout of self flagellation about the perceived shortcomings of the profession, a sigh escapes me.
Bear with me, as I am unashamedly positive about the contribution HR people can make in an organization , not when they are given the opportunity, but when they take the opportunity.
As an HR professional who has lived and worked in senior roles in a variety of organisations, including telecommunications, retailing, food and carpet manufacturing as well as stints in universities, a trade union and a law firm I have had the opportunity to experience and to learn about how an HR practitioner can influence the strategy of organizations. This has been both through my own efforts and by observing and discussing with my internal peers and externally with other HR practitioners.
Some of the learnings that I have found to be beneficial can be summarised as follows:
i) It is often better to ask forgiveness rather than permission when introducing new practices into organisations, but make sure the basic HR processes are working before you indulge in this practice.
ii) Learn the language of the business and express HR initiatives in those terms. Do not expect the business to learn HRspeak.
iii) Become the confidant of the CEO and the senior team and learn to listen without judging. Always however retain the ability to take distance on issues and on the actions of your colleagues.
iv) Get around the business and become the Company Chaucer, the one with the interesting tales about the people.
v) Find new ideas for the business, from anywhere, about anything and share them with everyone. Become the facilitator of projects built off new ideas.
vi) Plant seeds in the organization, nourish them and celebrate when people come to you with “their” flourishing pot plant of an initiative.
vii) Take on additional responsibilities when they are offered and volunteer for things that no one else wants to do.
viii) Build “frameworks’ and talk benefits not features when you are driving initiatives, especially in any strategic planning process.
ix) Stay on top of the knowledge, read everything, and look to learn from everyone. Most people know more than you do.
x) Do everything with a sense of humour and don’t take yourself too seriously! No one else will…
By the way, many of these learnings can apply to any senior manager in any function…
“Taking” the opportunity is probably the essence of a successful HR role, and doing this enables you to see where you have been in an organization. There are always opportunities to make a contribution in an organization, although often you end up working on things that you may feel do not add the most value and are not, in your own considered view, what the organization ”really needs”.
Whenever HR people gather together and I think a “corollary” of HR people is the correct collective noun, there is always a discussion about how we know what the organization” really needs’. This is often accompanied by knowing looks, occasional sighs and the odd affirming grunt.
This then inevitably leads to a discussion about the lack of recognition of HR and sharing of personal frustration and vexation, usually accompanied by an Evian or a rough red wine.
Back at work this reinforcement by your external peer group of your almost criminal lack of recognition translates into the development of a moderate siege mentality, expressed as a series of covert hurt looks during the monthly management meeting and begrudging assistance with initiatives which the business currently requires but which in fact they don’t “really” need.
Anyway, the thing is that it does not have to be like this and it helps to look at other functions within the business so that things are put in perspective.
Lets take Finance and IT-the numbercrunchers and the propellorheads. Each should make a contribution to the business at a tactical and a strategic level. In many cases however CEOs are frustrated because their Finance person is good with the numbers but not with suggestions about business initiatives based on trends with the numbers. They often use the IT person to fix their PC when they should be utilizing the knowledge and perspective of the IT guy about their business operation to enhance organizational performance.
The point is that both functions can claim to be misunderstood. The Finance person can claim unreasonable expectations and the IT person can claim to be treated as a technician rather than a business manager. Again, in both cases there are opportunities which are not being taken and in fact where these circumstances exist, there is often an opportunity for the HR person to increase their influence and job satisfaction.
HR people typically have a tendency to put Finance people on a pedestal, something that I feel is singularly unhelpful, both for Finance people and for HR people. Even where HR people report to Finance people this should not occur. Doing this acts as a constraint, putting a handbrake on influencing the organization by the HR person, because they are always awaiting either direction or approval instead of getting on with things. In addition there is no mystery with Finance people. They simply count the numbers and explain them to the business –they are the scorekeepers, very nice scorekeepers but scorekeepers.
The point is that in every business or indeed every organization there is a requirement for managing various business processes including those relating to people .It is in the latter area that the opportunities arise for HR people.
Typically HR is responsible for ensuring smooth running personnel processes from selection to termination and everything else in between, sometimes known as “hatch, match and dispatch”. These are processes that are essential to the running of organizations and as such should be managed effectively and indeed enthusiastically by any HR practitioner.
For sure, there is drudgery in any job and leafing through the latest updates around health and safety legislation or chasing up managers who have not completed their appraisals ranks right up there in the drudgery stakes.
But once you have these processes ticking over then there is room to expand into the business partner quadrant. This principle applies regardless of the size of the organization.
In short, in today’s organizations where there is a dedicated HR resource there is a plethora of opportunities to make a difference. However, if those same HR people are looking for affirmation of their place in an organization, by virtue of their expertise they will be disappointed. Recognition comes from achievement not expertise.
AUTHOR PROFILE
Paul McCarthy is now a Consultant in the Human Resources field, and specialises in strategic human resource planning, organisational reviews, talent development and performance and change management.
He has had senior level HR experience in a variety of business organisations, including manufacturing (FMCG and textiles), food retailing (supermarkets) and telecommunications, in both national and international organisations. He has operated at the Executive Committee level in all of these sectors.
In addition, he has had substantial teaching, research and administrative experience in Universities in Australia and New Zealand. He has also worked in a large New Zealand Law firm and as a Legal Officer for a large trade union.
He holds a law degree from the University of Auckland and has a Masters of Public Administration from the University of Queensland. He is also the author of two books on negotiation skills, published in both Australia and New Zealand .
