The Influence of HR

The job of business is to satisfy a need.  Or a want (which always feels like a need.)  To sell.  To produce. To build.  To distribute.  To grow.  And to produce a profit that allows the cycle to continue.  Business is Sales and Operations.  If you ever started a business, you know that your first question was "what am I selling?"

The rest of the team - if done right - enables those teams to make and to sell.  The Human Resources group not only serves as the enabling team for Sales and Operations, it serves as the enabling team for every function in the business. 

Without the business strategy defined so employees "are clear", without organizations designed that make it easier to get the job done, without the "right" work defined and the "right" people in place, without processes that make the rules of business easier to navigate -- there will be no sustainable growth.

The long stale discussion of HR having a seat at the table would be funny if it wasn't so sad.  The truth is - it's a Human Capital Investment Table.  And smart and saavy Human Capital/Human Resources folks know that they need to "host" the table. 

In places where we don't find smart and saavy HR - we don't generally see differentiated, sustainable human capital investment.  Not to mention...that we don't see much hospitality either.

It's a game of influence.  To have influence means you understand the game, you understand the stakes and the stakeholders, you understand power.  And you chose to be a player....influencing outcomes in a postive way becasue you know HR, you know your business, you know your employees and your potential employees, you know your customers.  And you are willing to keep learning.  The role of HR - this role of influencing human capital investment and the consequential outcomes of the business is critical - vital - to success.  And for all the whining, it's exciting to see many HR leaders stepping up and stepping into a role of critical influence.

That's what I think!  I'd love to hear what you think!

Business Acumen & The People Side of Business

It's not just that we "want a seat at the table" - we want to influence the conversation that take place and the business decisions that get made.  Much has been written about the need for HR practitioners to demonstrate business acumen.  This has caused a proliferation of "Finance for Non-Finance Professionals" classes.  The challenge, of course, is that learning the basics is just the first step.

The work acumen is defined as sharpness of mind: the ability to make quick accurate intelligent judgments about people or situations.   "Make" - "Quick" - "Accurate" - "Intelligent" - "Judgements" - "People" - Situations." 

When I read that definition, it reminds me again that really good HR people are really good business people.  They aren't leaders who simply added "how to read a P&L" to their skill set (although that is important).  They are the leaders who understand how changing the talent mix, changing incentive plans, changing a culture (the list goes on) impacts the P&L.  And based on "what they know", they do, in fact, "make quick accurate intelligent judgements/decisions/recommendation abut people and situations/options."

I'd love to hear what you think.....

Faith At and Faith In Work

It's the beginning of the New Year, and I'm finding that the conversations are enthusiastic after a nice break. The holiday provided time for rest and time for reflection. People are ready to again experience success and optimism.

Our dear friend, Randy Hain, has written a book - The Catholic Briefcase (you can purchase it at Amazon). Randy is a strong and faithful Roman Catholic and I am not -- good Scot Irish Presbyterian here, and still I found it an important read. As the back cover states, "Randy takes his faith to work". I do, too, and so do many, actually most of you. Frankly, it seems to me that it is impossible to come to work with less than our whole selves - whether we give voice to it or not.

The question for us on the People Side of Business, is what do we do with that faith when we do show up at work. One of the seeming benefits of this difficult economic time is that as folks have leaned into their own faith, they have been more willing to share their own story and to ask about yours. As HR folks, this can feel very comforting and helpful and it can also cause concerns about respect, conflict and legalities. It's a thin line between sharing a story and not stepping on toes.

My grandparents came up in time when business people of faith quietly took care of others. They didn't talk faith, they "did" faith. Perhaps there is part of an answer in their approach. This quiet caring and sense of corporate responsibility is one of the reasons that I love metro Atlanta and "its Atlanta Way" of taking care of this community.

Certainly leading by example and being good stewards is a personal place to begin (both topics are covered in Randy's book). We want to be intentional in showing our faith story, not just talking about it.

Our HR and business magazines often discuss religiosity run amok in the workplace, but certainly there is a hunger for real dialogue. We have to figure out how and when.

Of course, Randy (and me and many of you) would say it starts with prayer. Getting focused within yourself about your role in the workplace, opening yourself up to being a role model and a leader - brave and true- that you are called to be. Creating opportunities where people can bring the "whole of them" into the workplace....

I'd love to hear what you think.....

Wishing you Peace and Joy and Love in the New Year.

The HR Leader and Health Care

The bill has passed and signed and now it's law. And as every HR professional knows, now the real work begins. Remember when FLSA was being updated and we all thought we'd finally have true clarity around exempt and non-exempt workers? I'm betting the regulations that follow this bill will be the most complex we've experienced.

For us in HR profession, sitting at this table, we have three immediate questions:

What do we tell our leadership team?

What do we tell the HR team?

What do we tell our employees (or our clients)?

Before we can tell anyone anything, of course, we need to learn. And that includes learning about cost, coverage, and options. It means learning more about benefit plans and offerings, more about employee needs and behaviors, more about what the CEO thinks, and what the CFO and lawyers think, too. It means figuring out who we need to be listening to and who we need to be talking to.

While everyone else is talking about the politics and reviewing who are "good guys" and who are the "bad guys" and whether this is the "best" or the "worst" thing America has done in a while, we have the opportunity to be a business leader in the HR space. Bring facts, bring trends, bring options, bring good questions and solutions. Our employees (and clients) need clarity for today and our leaders need options for tomorrow.

At this table, we don't come empty handed....or empty headed. We hope you'll accept our warm invitation to have a seat, share a cup of coffee, and offer your opinion about the best way for terrific HR folks to proceed. Who should we be learning from and what questions should we be asking? We'd love to hear from you!

Beginning at the Begining

I didn't realize until the other day that the first Personnel Department was started at the National Cash Register Company in 1901, in the aftermath of a difficult strike. It makes a few of us smile to realize that even in the beginning, much of the job was "clean up"!

Today, we don't consider ourselves Personnel. We talk about being a Human Resources Specialist or Generalist, an Office Manager, a Talent Leader, a Labor & Management Director, an Organizational Developer, a Strategist, a Trusted Advisor, an Attorney and an HR Leader, a Business Person focused on HR issues, a Resource Partner,a Consultant to name a few.

At the end of the day, I think the role exists -- no matter what you want to call it -- because someone needs to integrate the needs of the individual employee with the needs of the business. Someone has to take acountability for making sure there are the right people with the right skills in the right jobs with the right levels of investment and engagement with the right leadership to make those grand strategy statements come true.

Lots gets written every week about what we in the profession are dong well and a lot more is written about what we aren't doing well. I think we carry a hard message that many in our companies don't want to hear. And I think we often don't prepare ourselves to be the best advocates for the messages we need to deliver.

It occurs to me as I write this that if our real job is to integrate the needs of different constituencies, than perhaps our challenge is we are not integrated ourselves. To what degree do we understand the conflicting business conversations that are gong on around us? To what degree do we understand what the President or CEO really (really!) expects from HR. To what degree do we know what we personally do best for employees and leaders? Being knowedgeable prepares us for what Dave Ulrich would call being "A Credible Activist".

Does that term resonate? It means being both proactive and credible. Are those terms that as an HR leader, you believe others would use to describe you? Should they be the terms used? If you serve the HR community, do you see this as an important role? And what do our business leaders think?

We'd like to hear your thoughts? Credible Activist & HR Leader - is it the place to begin?

Pull Up a Chair

Want a seat at the table? Well, let me help you pull up a chair. Let’s begin by talking.

Welcome to what I intend to be “a thought provoking conversation” designed to talk about, invest in, and generate the ideas, dialogues, processes, and models that will begin to improve our workforces and workplaces.

Now that’s a mouthful! But if you know me, and many of you do, you know that I am passionate about business, about HR, and about the people who make up the places where we work. And I’d like us to talk about it. It’s my belief that our collective conversations will expand the seats at table, as well as allow us to set the table at most of the places we gather.

At this table it’s all about conversation and hospitality. I grew up in a home where we ate fast and talked long – about everything, but with a focus on adding to our understanding so we could in turn make something better. I’ve tried to do the same thing in my home and in my office. At home, my children, now grown, insist that everyone be seated at the table. While it makes for some interesting holiday table configurations, every voice is heard. And at the office, we intentionally make a space and a time for conversation, for the purpose of understanding and encouragement.

And now, because I want to hear from you, I’m extending the table to this virtual environment. Think of this as safe place to present a point of view – no whining here, but rather a place to talk about what could be, what is, and what we can do and might do to move from “is” to “could be”. So grab a cup of coffee or a diet coke (we do hail from Atlanta, after all), pause, think, and contribute to the work in front of us.

Every employee, every manager today is impacted by “human resources” work. We’re a relatively new profession and we’re having plenty of growing pains. But the work we do matters – because people matter.

We’re all tired of the negativity we’ve garnered and we all also know, professions and people “earn respect” – it is not easily given. I’ve told a few of you that a simple goal for me is that the next time someone writes about what’s wrong with HR, the response will be – “gosh, you sure haven’t been to Atlanta!” Our HR community and conversations are becoming stronger by the day.

There are a couple “ground rule expectations” at this table.

When you respond - remember this is a conversation - contribute, don’t complain.

• In Atlanta, we respect both practitioners and resource partners – we all have something to add to the conversation.
• We want to hear a broad array of perspectives – from all the specialties as well as the generalists, junior and senior folks, professors – hiring managers and employees, too. So encourage others to join in the conversations.
• We follow all the rules of hospitality – collectively we want everyone to feel welcome here.
• We have some really good models from folks like Lawler, Ulrich and Fritz-ens (and I’m sure you will remind me of others). Do some research.

So now, go warm up your coffee or ice up your coke and let’s talk. So lets begin with the topic of Business Knowledge.

How do we leverage business acumen to create better workforces and workplaces? What does it mean (really mean) to be a business partner? What kind of partner do workplaces need?

Let’s talk. I look forward to hearing your perspective.