What Use is HR?

Welcome to Discuss HR, the HR blog written by Human Resources UK. 

After Kate Griffiths-Lambeth very topical last post, she moves onto another always topical subject, namely the value of HR. (Ed Scrivener)

What Use is HR?

HR has come a long way - as indicated by this antiquated joke:  Eric, a long-serving administrator in the Personnel Department, who shared an office with his boss, was always puzzled by the fact that, whenever his superior was required to sign a letter, he would slide open his desktop drawer, peer inside, smile and nod, before reclosing it, picking up his pen and adding his moniker and title with a flourish onto the document.

Eventually his boss retired and Eric was promoted to Personnel Manager.  As expected, he moved to the big desk.

Curiosity finally getting the better of him, he opened the drawer...  It was empty, other than a piece of paper stuck to the base, on which was written the simple comment “2 Ns and 1 L”.

The days of HR being little more than a paper-pusher, coordinating the documentation for employees and management, with little understanding and certainly no involvement in decision making, have passed in most businesses, not least because cost constraints mean that there is no room to carry non-contributing individuals.  However, not all organisations (and regrettably not all HR professionals) really appreciate what HR really can and should do to help organisations achieve their goals.  A survey, published by KPMG in late 2012, highlights the fact that HR still has a way to go – just 17% of respondents (418 senior executives drawn from both HR and other functions) believed that “HR does a good job of demonstrating its value to the business”. 

There is no doubt that over the past six years there has been a preoccupation with costs and as a consequence HR has had to become “more efficient” – this is not the same as “more effective”.  The world of work has and is undergoing significant change, including:

• globalisation,
• flexible working,
• the ability to relocate administrative, low margin tasks to less expensive locations,
• automation through technology,
• increased requirement for meaningful information and metrics,
• increased self-service (often to provide the above),
• real-time data and analytics on tap for managers about their team and broader business issues,
• off-shoring and outsourcing of shared services, payroll, recruitment, legal advice and remuneration and tax specialist advice, etc

The above are now seen as normal, cost-effective approaches to business.  They also risk making HR appear redundant, as many of the traditional services provided by HR are no longer needed to be performed in that way, they can be provided in a different and more cost-effective manner.  But, all coins have two sides.  Aren’t we lucky, all this change and innovation has given us the space to free ourselves from the routine tasks so we can add value?

 

Successful businesses are dependent on talented people to execute the strategy.  Strategy is useless without people.  They need to be supported, developed, trained and equipped to be successful and that is where HR should be seen to be operating.  HR’s value is the:

• understanding,
• attracting,
• retaining,
• monitoring,
• supporting,
• inspiring and
• growing of talent

in a dynamic way that keeps abreast of change and puts the best skills in the most appropriate locations, to ensure growth and sustainability.  HR must enable the execution of strategy through building and enhancing organisational capability – to do so we must have in-depth understanding of the organisation’s strategy, what the business and its employees are and could be capable of and be able to introduce effective approaches to bridge the gap.  We must be innovative, agile and responsive – much like the organisations in which we work. Most importantly, we must be seen to be so – so that people have confidence in us and our recommendations.

So of course HR has a purpose.

However, we are very poor at looking after our own needs.  To be capable of being effective, as opposed to just efficient, HR itself needs to be supported, developed and inspired and grow its own capabilities - commercial understanding, business process redesign, organisational design, job design, strategic workforce planning – these are all things we need to apply to our own function as well as to the businesses we support.  We need to take action, not just have thoughts to be kept in the top drawer.

Read about Kate and our other authors here

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Discuss HR is the HR blog written by members of Human Resources UK, the 10,000 member strong LinkedIn group dedicated to the HR professionals in the UK.  Discuss HR is published twice weekly and looks to take an insightful, informative and sometimes irreverent view on the world of HR – all with the purpose of generating a discussion.

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