Making the Human Resources Function More Strategic

For much of time past, the human resources (HR) function in an organization tended to be structured around discrete tasks such as recruitment, hiring, orientation of new members, payroll, benefits, performance appraisal, training (with regard to how the organizationpresently functions), management ofa disciplinary policy, termination and exit interviews. In today's rapidly changing world, the business organization is challenged in the way it organizes, manages and works, and the HR function will need to help the organization meet those challenges. Today'sorganizationexists to serve customers and is therefore outward oriented and market guided. While other stakeholders such as investors and suppliers have important relations with the organization, the primary relation is with the end user, customer or client. If the customer relationship does not receive primaryattention, the organization will wither and die. The primary focus formanagementin today's organization is to manage the employee-customer relationship,not to control employees. That means if members in Department A are not meeting the needs of their customers in Department B (internal customers), management is not managing an important relationship. If the members are not producing a product or service that the customer in the marketplace sees as meeting his or her expectations, managers are not managing an important relationship. Theworkof the organization meets or exceeds customer expectations. It doesn't matter if the manager or worker thinks the output quality is high. What does matter is the end customer sees product quality as high and therefore work is appropriately structured and conducted that it produces customer satisfaction. The description of organization, management and work outlined above increasingly needs to be supported and assisted by the HR function being more strategic in its work. While the discrete functions such as hiring, payroll, etc., described earlier, continue to be important responsibilities of the HR function, the strategic questions of how the organization is structured, how it manages and how it works are now assuming primary importance. The HR function becomes more strategic by acting as the interface and driver between the organization's vision, mission, values and goals going forward, and the leadership and members who work to achieve those goals. HR works to ensure the critical strategies of the organization do not become plans sitting on a shelf somewhere. Rather the HR function has one hand on the pulse of the organization as it presently operates, and the other hand on the creative and dynamic developmental efforts that are put into place so the organization continues to meet customer expectations in the future. Management, in many organizations,has the tendency to focus on today and not be that concerned about the future. This is why it is important thatthe HR function act as interface between the leadership and members in meeting the organization's goals and avoiding obsolescence. What are some of the ways the HR function can become more strategic? 1. The HR function can be involved in on-going evaluation of organizational structure to make sure the work flow is lean and focused, and assisting with re-designideas where structure needs to change to more effectively meet the customer's expectations. It needs to be involved in organizational changes that occur either by way of process improvement, process change or re-design that will make future work more productive. 2. The HR function should be involvedin on-going evaluation of people. This includes a robust succession planning effort to deal with promotions and turnover, as well as assessment of new job creation efforts and the training and development needed to meet skill levels necessary as jobs change or new jobs are created. 3. Ensuring management continues to evolve in a way that supports more member self-direction and focuses on managing the member-customer relationship are also strategic responsibilities for HR. This may require on-going training effortsor even replacement of leaders and managers who cannot or will not learn the new ways to support members. 4. The HR function needs to evaluate and define what new skills are needed in members and what must be done to develop those skills. Additional skills to include problem solving, process improvement and creative collaboration are all increasingly important for all members in today's organizational effort. Making the HR function more strategic is certainly a challenge. It is critical for HR to increasingly focus onbeing the driver and coordinator of efforts that help the organization meet its strategic goals. The HR function must lead in maintaining organizational member development at all levels to head off obsolescence and prepare people to effect the strategic changes the organization needs to make.