There
is no question that the business environment has changed dramatically in the
past twenty years, but the HR function in most organisations does not look very
different than it did fifteen to twenty years ago. The period since 2010 has
witnessed enormous change in the business environment: a global economic
recovery; the continuing economic growth of India and China; and fundamental
changes in technology-driven social platforms, personalisation, and
device-centric applications.
There
is widespread agreement and much writing about the need for HR to change and
how it needs to change to be more strategic and more of a business partner;
offer higher-quality HR information systems (HRIS) and human capital management
systems; and be more of a leader on issues such as globalisation,
sustainability, workplace personalisation, and organisational agility.
Check out LBTC’s HR Management training
courses.
What has changed?
Some
significant changes have occurred in how HR functions are organised and how
they deliver services. The most significant changes are the way the HR function
is organised, where HR activities and information are located, and HR’s role in
employee advocacy and shaping a labour market strategy. These changes may well
set the stage for a greater strategic partnership, but they are largely focused
on how the HR function itself is organised and managed and how it defines its
relationships with its clients. The most important changes are as follows:
ü HR is more likely to
use service teams to support and serve business units.
ü HR is more likely to
have corporate centres of excellence.
ü Companies are more
likely to have similar HR practices in different business units.
ü HR is paying increased
attention to recruitment and selection as well as organisational design and
development.
ü More companies have
most rather than some of their HR processes as information technology based.
ü Employees are
increasingly making use of HRISs on a self-service basis.
ü There is greater
satisfaction with the interpersonal dynamics and business understanding skills
of HR professionals.
ü HR decision support
contributions are increasingly associated with HR’s strategic role.
ü HR is increasingly
effective in helping to shape a viable employment relationship for the future,
providing HR services, operating centres of excellence, and being an employee
advocate.
Most
of these changes occurred in the late 1990s. Since then, the major changes have
involved information technology.
All this and more on LBTC’s
HR seminars and workshops.
What has not changed?
In
spite of the aforementioned progress in the last 20 years, it is clear that a
number of things have not changed very much, if at all. Many of these elements
reflect HR’s role in shaping strategy and building effective HR skills. Among
them are the following:
o
The
belief that HR has increased the time it spends as a strategic partner and the
estimated time as a strategic partner.
o
The
extent to which HR is shaping business strategy.
o
The
desire of HR executives to be business and strategic partners.
o
The
rotation of individuals into and out of HR.
o
The
tendency of HR advice to boards to be about executive compensation and
succession and not about change, governance, risk, strategy, or sustainability.
o
The
moderate quality of the human capital decisions that business leaders make.
o
The
relatively low levels of business leaders’ use of sound principles for human
capital decisions compared to their use with respect to more tangible assets.
o
The
infrequent use of HR systems to educate business leaders about the quality of
their talent decisions.
o
The
implementation of HR metrics and analytics systems and their effectiveness.
o
The
moderate use of efficiency and effectiveness measures and the less frequent use
of measuring HR impact on decisions and strategy.
o
The
use of fully integrated HR information technology systems.
o
The perception that more than 80 percent of HR
professionals have the skills they need to be effective.
o
HR
skill satisfaction averages below “neither satisfied nor dissatisfied” for all
HR skills except those in traditional areas of HR technical skills and
interpersonal dynamics.
o
The
business partner skills of the HR professionals rated as moderate to low.
o
The
highest effectiveness of HR in traditional areas such as providing HR services
and being an employee advocate and the lowest effectiveness in areas related to
business strategy.
o
Little
improvement in the key areas that are strongly correlated with HR’s role in
strategy and HR functional effectiveness.
It
seems as though more things have stayed the same than have changed. Although
many of the changes are significant and important, the amount of change is
surprisingly small. Frankly, given the tremendous amount of attention that has
been given to the importance of HR being a business and strategic partner and
adding value in new ways, more is expected. This “stubborn traditionalism” is
also apparent in the continuing flow of articles about frustration among non-HR
executives with HR’s unrealised potential.
Check out LBTC for training
and development of employees in human in human resources management.
What will it take to
change how HR operates in organisations?
HR
can and should be more of a strategic contributor. It appears to have some influence
when it comes to how staffing relates to strategy and in influencing organisational
structure and its relationship to implementing strategy, but HR plays a less
prominent role when it comes to the development of strategy, consideration of
strategic options, and other strategy areas, including acquisitions and mergers.
A
number of HR capabilities and practices are significantly associated with a
stronger strategic role for HR, including:
Ø Having an HR strategy
that is integrated with the business strategy.
Ø The use of information
technology by HR.
Ø Focusing on HR talent
development.
Ø Using HR service teams
that provide expertise and support the business.
Ø Having HR activities
that focus on organisational design, organisational development, change
management, employee development, and metrics.
Ø Using computer systems
for training and development.
Ø Having an effective
HRIS system.
Ø Having effective HR
metrics and analytics.
Ø Having business
leaders who make rigorous, logical human capital decisions.
Ø Having an HR staff
with technical, organisational dynamics, business partner, and metrics skills.
Ø Having effective
decision support.
Ø Having an HR function
that effectively provides services.
Ø Strong HR involvement
and support of sustainability initiatives.
Overall,
HR being a strategic contributor demands that high levels of business knowledge
and skill be present in HR. It also requires HRISs that have the right metrics
and analytics, and organisational designs and practices that link HR managers
to business units. Last, but not to be overlooked, is the need for effective
and efficient delivery of HR services.
All this and more on
LBTC’s HR generalist
training course.
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