For some time now, I have been thinking
about the contribution of HR to organisations. Have there been organisations
where HR has singularly made a difference. Or is this all led by the CEOs? And
how do you measure HR contribution?
The last few years have arguably been a
roller coaster for Indian business- and such tough times are the right
environment for HR’s true contribution to shine through. But when I speak to
some CEOs, they seem to be grappling with many people issues, and are still
looking at HR to make a step change. Moreover, when I talk to employees, they
don’t seem to be more happier. In fact, their expectations have been soaring on
many aspects, and organisations & HR seem to be struggling to meet them.
There appears to be a surfeit of initiatives and processes- and all this seems
to be doing is to add complexity. Operating line managers seem to be wary of many
of the HR processes, and given the multiplicity of activities, seem to be doing
them with less heart and less ownership. I thought these were just my
perceptions- until I spoke to a few CEOs. And Shiv Shivkumar of Pepsi
vindicated my feelings, in a very engaging session, that spurred me to think
deeper, and pen down these thoughts.
And then there is the other side of the picture! HR is an enabling function, and we encourage line managers to own HR, and that's a reason that we get many views from people on what needs to be done. And when they say HR is not delivering, in a way they are projecting their own lack of success in managing and leading their people! However, given that there could be numerous perspectives, lets explore this deeper.
So what ails HR?
As I was talking to a few people and thinking
through this question, the following came across as some of the key problems
facing HR.
1) Tyranny of the Process
Almost two decades ago, the HR team
in Hindustan Lever consisted of 3 people- a Management Development Manager, a
Training Manager and a Recruitment Manager (I am leaving out the Industrial
Relations team here). This team did everything to do with management
development- through a set of very simple processes, but with lots of rigour
and senior management ownership, and they helped develop awesome leaders. Now,
HR comes up with numerous initiatives and activities spurred by two prime
drivers. First, we in HR have to show some activity in the short term to
address an issue, and we launch a hyped-up ‘intervention’. Second, and this is
just a hypothesis, is that we tend to address many symptoms and issues, and not
really ‘attack’ the root-cause. Therefore, every issue or symptom is managed
with an initiative and a process to support that.
2) HR training emphasizes process champions
Increasingly, what is being
discussed in business schools and in the numerous HR seminars etc., are an
increasingly ‘process’ view of HR. Everything is boiled down to a tool, a
template and a process. While this may suit an ‘engineering’ mind-set of a
majority of our leaders, this seems to be missing the point. The greatest HR
contribution was never through these processes- the only way HR adds value is
bringing insights on people and organisation to enhance decision-making and
uphold the culture of the organisation. In layman’s terms, while we have built
a lot on the ‘science’ (at times‘pseudo-science’ as most of it is not well
tested and researched) of HR, we have not focused on developing the ‘art’ of
HR. Do we even see the value of the ‘art‘ here? We have to train our HR people
to think like CEOs on people and business. How do we do that? Not by teaching
them competencies and skill assessment frameworks and templates!
3) The looming shadows on our credibility
Employees are increasingly skeptical
of organizational HR initiatives- unless they see some clear benefit for
themselves. Truth as a virtue in organisations is probably becoming rare. Well,
let me rephrase this. I think organisations and managers still want to be open
and truthful, but the perception of employees is that we are less truthful.
Career aspirations of employees are often not dealt with objectivity and
honesty- these are normally cloaked in subterfuge, uncertainty and are
conditional. This is partly due to the uncertainty in organisations where
leaders are hesitant to commit on a future course of action, further
exacerbated by poor career counselling skills, a fear of people leaving if they
don’t like what they hear, and a lack of clarity in judging people’s potential
and future.
4) What are we in HR aiming for
I keep asking myself- what is HR
really aiming for? While other functions are quite clear- Sales focusses on
revenue, Marketing on Market share, and so on, we in HR seem to be all over the
place. Sometimes I hear people saying they want to create a ‘great place to
work’, and soon they say we want to build ‘capability’ in the organisation, and
then move on to talk about building a talent pipeline, and end it all saying
they want to be partners to the business! Add to this diversity, culture, new
HR operating model and so on- the reality is that HR deliverables have become
complex and numerous, and that is probably at the root of some of our issues.
Moreover, to be contemporary, we at times tend to go after the fad of the
season- the ‘best practice’ of other organisations soon become the hot
initiative we are championing! What do we really enable and what are we truly
accountable for? If I ask this question of HR people, what do you think we will
hear? Are we clear about our responsibilities versus what we think is owned by
the business/line managers.
5) Asphyxiation at the altar of copycat gamesmanship
The above multiplicity of
initiatives not only leads to some amount of lack of focus, but also to a lack
of depth in thinking, and makes us prisoners of tools and products that
consultants or commercial organisations market very well. For instance, take
the engagement surveys. Yes, it is good for every organisation to check what their
employees think, and to benchmark that with a set of peer organisations. So far,
so good. However, many companies then participate in various ‘best employers’ competitions-
ostensibly to see where they stand, and to use it to talk about their employer
brand! Now, as a group of HR professionals, can’t we share data on the
engagement surveys amongst a set of peer group companies and see how we are
doing, and work out improvement actions internally. Do we need these best
employers’ competitions and paraphernalia, just to tell us where we stand? Can’t
we make this more useful to us by sharing data amongst a few, like minded peer
group companies, and use it to make changes. This goes back to the question-
what is HR really driving and what are we accountable for?
6) Silos and specialization
Over the last decade, the HR
function in most organisations has been through transformative changes- and the
model of having Centres of Expertise, Business Partners, and a transactional
Shared Services is now the norm. However, reading professional literature and
speaking to many people, I sense that a priority of most organisations is to
continuously tweak this model and drive for productivity and cost efficiencies,
with a big thrust on technology. While this is probably important, there is the
risk that this takes the mindshare away from the more strategic issues. Second,
the challenge this model presents is the balance between specialization and
silos- how do we bring the power of specialization, yet ensuring it
doesn’t end up creating silos in the HR
organisation. I guess some of these issues are also influencing how HR responds
to the business challenges.
With changing
aspirations of people, and changing organisations, we in HR need to wake up. Ram
Charan, in the latest HBR, has raised similar questions- though more on the
role and capability of HR professionals! There is a need for a big shift in
what we bring to organisations. I don’t have all the answers, but there are
some areas we can explore. Many of the Silicon Valley companies are pioneering
some big changes- but large organisations are still slow to respond.
However, it’s not
all doom and gloom. There are great HR professionals and outstanding
organisations- so I am taking nothing away from that. All I feel is given the
big challenges, this is the moment for us in HR to show some thought
leadership, and change our game.
But would like to
have your views… am I barking up the wrong tree? Do you share these concerns,
or do you feel these are not so worrying? Would be good to get some thoughts on
this, and maybe we can together think of some possible solutions.
A big caveat:
these are my personal observations and reflections, and is in no way linked to
any organization.
