Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes
Those of you who read my most recent blog entry may recall my describing one of my current MBA courses as if it were a breath of fresh air compared to my highly analytical previous courses. I always knew that my approach to business differed from that of my classmates, but it was officially confirmed at two evening social events this week. Several other students in my coaching class commented on how it seemed like complete fluff and one in particular asked if we were going to sing “Kumbaya” at the end of the module.
Seriously?? In my opinion, we spend far too little time developing our soft-skills, and in the end isn’t that what differentiates us on the spectrum of success? Will you remember your best boss as someone who developed impressive pro forma statements or rather as someone who catered to your individual needs?
At the risk of being ostracized at the next MBA event (for liking another class devoid of spreadsheets), I am going to write about what we learned in the other class I am taking this module, Strategic Human Resources. I’ll be honest…my perception of HR was pretty abysmal throughout most of my career. I know you’re thinking to yourself, “um, wait, didn’t you work in HR when you were a recruiter?” Okay, technically I did, but when someone would inquire about my position “You work in HR right?” – or worse yet, personnel – yikes! I’d reply with “Well, Recruiting actually”. I was hesitant to associate myself with the HR department in my former organization.
According to our professor, who has a long history of turning around “old school” thinking HR departments, the reality of HR as a profession is changing. It’s moving away from being the catch all for an organization’s mediocre performers and dumping ground for executives’ relatives (with no skill set) who need a job. HR professionals are intentionally pursuing the field as a career path and are getting credentialed – just like CPAs (well, not exactly – I wouldn’t want our accountant to be my HR rep).
Unfortunately HR is not changing as fast as the rest of us would like. In fact, the majority of the students in my class claimed that they enrolled in Strategic HR to find out what the HR professionals in their organizations actually do! For those of us who tried to avoid HR like the plague, have faith and check out this model we covered from David Ulrich’s chapter in Human Resource Champions entitled, “The Changing Nature of Human Resources” and channel your inner David Bowie. Change is coming, my friends.
According to the model, HR professionals should be equipped to focus on all four areas, but primarily acting as a strategic business partner, i.e. aligning HR initiatives with core business strategy. In the old model, HR was the place to hide away from the business and get caught up in policy and paperwork. Okay, that still happens sometimes, but it isn’t supposed to. HR professionals also need to focus on supporting and sometimes leading organizational change efforts - the key word being support, as in not acting as a roadblock to change, but rather as a change agent. According to Ulrich, serving as an administrative expert means, “ferreting out unnecessary costs, improving efficiency, and constantly finding new ways to do things better. “ Finally, the main activities for an employee champion include listening, responding, and finding ways to provide employees with the resources that meet their changing demands.”
So the next time you start to view your HR contact as a less than stellar performer, give him or her the “Ulrich Test”. At the very least you’ll have a framework to use when evaluating or articulating your frustrations!