What is the role of human resources? And no, that's not a rhetorical question.
Human Resources is a big topic in business media right now—decades old "administrative" HR roles are being swapped out for "strategic partnership" roles. But if you ask an HR leader to make a pie chart of the time he or she spends on administration and strategy work, it would probably look like this:
The truth is, administrative work takes time and resources—both of which are typically rare on HR teams. Even strategic work becomes administrative when we struggle with the technology that supports talent management programs, and don't have time for crucial conversations that assess and develop talent.
So, how can HR executives move from doing mostly administrative tasks to becoming a strategic advisor?
Focus on What Managers Need
First, don't take the human element out of the equation.
Let's take technology, for example. Technology is "administrative" work when we configure systems, obtain data, figure out why the data is wrong and spend our time fixing the data. I'm willing to bet that a significant amount of the data HR produces is not used by the client—either because they don't have time to review it, they don't know what to do with it or it isn't actually credible.
But if HR focused on using technology to not just find "data," but start conversations, the work can shift to "strategy."
To do this, engage management in dialogue. Ask them about their team's performance and productivity. Be genuinely interested and listen carefully, because they might not be able to articulate their concerns in your HR language: They may not immediately observe that "turnover is high"; but they might tell you productivity is down and they aren't sure why.
Once you get a sense of their needs, it's time to bring out the data and help them make the connection between the problem and the data.
Understand the State of the Business
You can't just offer managers HR data—you need to connect it to business data, too. Is business up or down? How are product lines doing? What's happening with the competition?
Once you have a picture of your organization's performance, you can connect the people data. For example, what personnel changes or shifts in hiring could have changed productivity (and therefore impacted sales)? How many employers have left? How difficult is it to hire and train new team members? If team members are leaving, are they seasoned team members or new hires?
Last but not least, think twice before shooting off an email with your discoveries. An email with a report on turnover can get lost in the inbox of a busy manager—instead, schedule a meeting and talk through your findings. By talking, your data becomes inherently meaningful because you have made it relevant to the manager.
Use Data as a Conversation Catalyst
Data is nothing more than a starting point for good dialogue, research and discovery, so consider using the "five whys" method as a way to start a conversation: Ask "why" five times to identify the true "root" of the problem. Start with the business, and transition to questions about the people.
Every technology solution offers canned reports. If you spend time configuring, correcting and "sharing" canned reports, you are doing administrative work. But if you spend time talking to your management team, identifying their needs, understanding the "state of the union" in your organization, and crafting relevant and meaningful data, you are doing strategic work.
Photo: Creative Commons
Recursos relacionados
¿Quieres seguir aprendiendo? Explora nuestros productos, las historias de nuestros clientes y las actualidades del sector.
Ficha técnica
Cornerstone HR
Al centralizar la gestión de los registros de RR. HH. y fomentar una conexión fluida entre los datos, Cornerstone HR mejora la experiencia general para tu personal y revoluciona la capacidad de las organizaciones para gestionar los datos del personal para una plataforma de gestión del talento.
Publicación de blog
10 maneras de sacar el máximo partido a las reuniones individuales
Para ser un buen líder, es fundamental mantener reuniones individuales periódicas con el personal. Sin embargo, los empleados suelen odiarlas, ya que carecen de previsión y enfoque; y es que los líderes deben ser conscientes de que el valor de estas interacciones va más allá de la mera formalidad. Para que las reuniones individuales sean eficaces, los líderes deben prepararse para cada reunión, establecer una agenda clara y escuchar activamente las inquietudes y el feedback de sus empleados.
Ficha técnica
Cornerstone Skills Graph Technical Datasheet
Cornerstone Skills Graph es la mejor forma de hacer de las habilidades el centro de su estrategia de talento. Independientemente del producto Cornerstone que tenga, puede usar su ontología inteligente que reúne más de 53.000 habilidades asociadas a millones de funciones para mejorar su fuerza laboral. Es un elemento central incluido en todos los perfiles del empleado.