It is the Human Resource Management that bears the brunt of being a joke in
any organization. Human Resource is considered to be for lazy people who do
nothing but hire; fire and create salary structures. Very few understand that Human Resource Management is a very
critical function, the one which even management leaders cannot do without.
The traditional boundaries of HR
management remain at hiring, firing, managing, promoting, appraising and paying
the employees. What is not observed is how the HR leaders can add value to the
organization outside their boundaries.
Let us look at examples of how HR can
lose its value:
- - If the IT department wants to introduce a new people oriented
software in the organisation, do they turn to HR for support or do they turn to
the consultant who is supposed to have “better knowledge” of people?
- -When a particular department is not performing, do the
department leaders call HR to diagnose the problem or do they try and solve it
themselves?
- - When the management decides to acquire a new company whose
product might be different from the parent company; do they consult the HR
leaders to help understand the impact it will have in the long run?
What management and
leaders today need to understand is that Human Resource comes with an extra
function- Human Resource ‘Development’. This extra function of ‘development’
does not only start and end with employee skill building or team building- but
it has the responsibility of developing and organizational building as well.
So, how do HR leaders
bring a change in adding more value to an organization?
- - Leadership is about bringing a change in organizational
culture. As a Human Resource leader, one must understand that culture cannot be
changed but behavioural changes can happen. Organizational health can be seen
through behaviour change
- - Organizational change will happen slowly- sometimes it will
fail at one level and succeed at another level. As a human resource personnel,
having a holistic approach helps along with the knowledge of predicting what
can happen
- - Training helps in developing leaders- and so we have special
training and development hr managers. But only ten percent of learning happens
in classes and by reading material. Rest is learned by developing skills and
having the opportunity to practice them. HR leaders need to make the management
understand that the scope to apply theoretical learning in practice should be
provided to the employees.
- - Looking outside of the traditional HR functions, recognising
business needs, recognising the need of other departments can help solve
organizational problems. HR leaders should collaborate with the strategic team,
the IT team or the Marketing team. HR has the ability to predict what the scope
of development is.
HR
Leadership plays a strong role in planning and development. Human Resource should
serve more on the company management teams and help in assessing company
strengths, weaknesses and projections of opportunities and threats.
