My post on comparing HR and IT as service parts of the organization once again brought out the best in my readers.

“That has to be the stupidest statement that ever came out of McKinsey! I spent 25 years as a recruiter and another decade teaching line managers better hiring skills and in most instances HR has neither the knowledge nor the business acumen to detail staffing needs for any project, tech or not. HR’s preference for controlling staffing budgets has more to do with amassing organizational power than with its ability to translate strategic initiatives into action. Staffing needs and talent acquisition, motivation and retention is the province of line management at every level.”

As usual, she hit a home run that cleared the bases for Sensei at ActiveEngine to make an excellent point about how useful HR CAN be in the area of working with different cultures:

“Certainly HR has evolved away from the traditional approach of “helping employees fill out forms”. For companies going international HR is indispensable in regards to working with other cultures. Generally they become the focal point for training people how to communicate with new team members with not only different backgrounds but with different cultural frameworks.”

What is curious here is how an organization like McKinsey can move so far in one direction with it’s advice without considering the limitations inherent in the mission and capabilities of an area. Clearly the three of us have a pretty clear perception of HR’s role based directly on our experiences. Why is a major consulting firm so interested in pushing HR out of it’s box?

Does your HR department get involved in executing strateges? If so, which ones and what role do they play? Do you agree that HR should stay within the limits imposed in this post? I’d like to hear from some HR managers, directors and VPs!

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Post from: EveryJoe

HR’s Focus on Service and Culture Transitions

“The impact of top talent on corporate performance hasn’t diminished, but what’s much clearer today-not least, as a result of the expansion of knowledge work-is that organizations can’t afford to neglect the contributions of other employees….Experience suggests that an exclusive focus on top players can damage the morale of the rest of the organization and, as a result, overall performance.”

The idea is to develop employee value propositions applying segmentation principles to the process, i.e., customer segmentation applied to employees! The problem so far is that most organizations only develop one value proposition as if all employees were the same:

“Ten years ago we stressed the importance of defining and communicating a powerful employee value proposition, which is senior management’s explanation of why a smart, energetic, and ambitious person might want to work for one company as opposed to another. While many organizations now use such a proposition, most have only one.”

These value proposition projects will require great collaboration between HR and department managers as they fulfill the tactics required to support company talent management strategies. The key is to clearly communicate why talent management supports other strategies thereby making it an extremely valuable process to standardize in the organization.

How many different segments of employees do you think you have? Can they be categorized/organized to reduce the amount of value propositions required? How do managers feel about working with HR to do this? What should be HR’s role in the process?

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Post from: EveryJoe

Customer Segmentation Applied to Talent Management

“Only HR can translate a business strategy into a detailed talent strategy: for instance, how many people does the company need in order to execute its business strategy, where does it need them, and what skills should they have?”

This got me thinking about how IT interacts with the organization on it’s projects. I’m not a fan of expanding the role of a CIO to be CEO-like. The same thing holds true with HR. I’ve personally gone through the cycle of having an HR VP suddenly gain power and importance because of this logic- it was more disruptive than helpful because the HR VP wasn’t equipped to handle CEO level issues.

Rather, ALL executives need to become more HR/talent management savvy in order to translate business strategies to talent management strategies. To simply put the burden on HR to do this is similar to the move toward having the CIO attempt to prioritize projects across many departments without a PMO and executive governance board- very difficult, if not impossible, to do.

The question of where and what skills are required is deeply ingrained in the hiring manager- the task of HR should be to collaborate with the hiring manager to determine and fulfill the hiring manager’s needs, much as an excellent IT developer collaborates with users to fully understand what they need.

Do you see parallels between how IT and HR projects are handled in an organization? What is an HR “project”? Does a VP of HR and CIO have to have CEO-like capabilities related to determining and executing strategies? Can a PMO and governance board arrangement play the same role in HR talent management projects and IT projects? Frankly, I’m new to the HR discussion- those experienced with HR functions, help us out!

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Post from: EveryJoe

Are HR Projects Like IT Projects?

1. Senior managers don’t spend enough high-quality time on talent management

2. Organization is “siloed” and does not encourage constructive collaboration, sharing of resources

3. Line managers are not sufficiently committed to development of people’s capabilities and careers.

Often HR is given the “talent management” task. However, the “obstacles” point to talent management being a function performed by ALL management. The obstacle that really jumps out for me is item 2. followed closely by item 3. “Siloing” can be overcome by putting together collaborative “learning events” where executives present and discuss their organizations and challenges with each other. ALL strategic issues, including talent management, should be covered as to how the entire organization can work together to improve and execute strategies.

Manager’s who aren’t interested in “development of people’s capabilities and careers” aren’t really managing at all; it’s possible that the organization has been promoting the wrong people into management positions simply because talent management is not a priority.

Do you see the same obstacles to talent management in your organization? Have you seen other obstacles? How have you overcome them?

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Post from: EveryJoe

Talent Management Projects: Are They An HR Function?

“Companies like to promote the idea that employees are their biggest source of competitive advantage. Yet the astonishing reality is that most of them are as unprepared for the challenge of finding, motivating, and retaining capable workers as they were a decade ago.”

While reading this it dawned on me that talent strategies lead to talent tactics and talent projects just like any strategy-tactic-project link in the organization. They went on to describe how talent management is perceived by organizations:

“Too many organizations still dismiss talent management as a short-term, tactical problem rather than an integral part of a long-term business strategy, requiring the attention of top-level management and substantial resources. One European COO lamented recently. “Talent management puts you under strain because it stops you from doing what you are rewarded for.”"

This idea of “reward” is important but should not be the focus; executives must see talent management as something that will give them value towards accomplishing their mission. I really think it is more of an educational, vs. reward, challenge: executives need to reevaluate and learn how important and valuable it is to attract, motivate and retain talent at all levels AND link these “projects” to their strategies.

How does your company perform the “talent management” process? Is it a process for a select few in the organization?

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Post from: EveryJoe

Talent as a Strategic Priority