HR Professionals & Business Savviness

Yesterday we talked about Accountants with a heart and the benchmark data, to day, let us review the need for HR professionals to be business savy.

One reason HR professionals have not been able to make headway is their inability to partner with business. Jim Kirkpatrick has time and again written about the need for business partnerships.

Business Savvy is a competency in short supply among HR professionals. What can we do about it?

Comments

Murali said…
One can as-a-matter-of-factly say HR function traditionally has spent more time professing than being professional. The HR function has been plagued by myths that keep it from being professional.

I recently read David Ulrich on "Old Myths & New Realities for the HR Function". To quote him

1. HR departments are not designed to provide corporate therapy or as social or health-and-happiness retreats. HR professionals must create the practices that make employees more competitive, not more comfortable.

2. HR activities are based on theory and research. HR professionals must master both theory and practice.

3. The impact of HR practices on business results can and must be measured. HR professionals must learn how to translate their work into financial performance.

4. HR practices must create value by increasing the intellectual capital within the firm. HR professionals must add value, not reduce costs.

5. The HR function does not own compliance-managers do. HR practices do not exist to make employees happy but to help them become committed. HR professionals must help managers commit employees and administer policies.

6. HR practices have evolved over time. HR professionals must see their current work as part of an evolutionary chain and explain their work with less jargon and more authority.

7. At times, HR practices should force vigorous debates. HR professionals should be confrontative and challenging as well as supportive.

Where HR cannot understand these realities and deliver at this level, the function would be in danger of having its influence reduced from insignificance to irrelevance.
5:39 PM
Anonymous said…
Absolutely agree with you. The HR profession wants more influence but still has not yet embarked on the journey to influence.
5:15 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Meaningful Learning

While working in small groups on a collaborative assignment, group members must increase their knowledge and deepen their understanding. The learning tasks must be structured to ensure the learning objectives are achieved. The responsibility for learning is shifted to the learners in a collaborative learning environment and the learning environment vibrates with high energy and FUN. All of this is useless if the learning is not meaningful. In summary, collaborative learning is about a small group of learners labouring together and sharing the workload equitably as they strive to achieve the learning outcomes.
Read more

Innovation

Making Innovation work for you I had the opportunity this morning to review Martin Lee’s article in the morning newspaper. The second paragraph quoting Jeff Immelt of General Electric made a lot of sense - the only source of profit, the only reason to invest in companies is their ability to innovate and differentiate. Five simple principles made the article readable: 1. Lead the way, as a leader walk the talk and show that you are an innovator. 2. Look for good ideas – as they say in Procter and Gamble – search and re apply. 3. Check out your assumptions – the business school professors gave a C to Fred Smith’s idea of overnight packaging service FEDEX. He went to create history. 4. Acquire the habit of creative thinking, set aside some time for brainstorming. 5. Innovation is not about mega ideas; it could be about small things too.
Read more