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BUILDING STRATEGIC HR ALLIANCES
One of the biggest challenges facing Human Resources managers
is the dire need to re-position human resources' services so that
they represent a strategic alliance with the other core business
departments within the organisation. There has never been any doubt
as to the business relevance of departments such as Sales and Marketing;
Production; Distribution, Finance, etc but despite many decades
of trying to pull itself out of the "back-rooms" of business operations,
HR still has a long way to go to leverage itself as a strategic
business partner.
The first challenge is to get HR practitioners to recognise what
'strategic partner" means - for HR itself. Too many current practitioners
feel that the term 'strategic HR business partner' denotes a job
title and not the business concept that it really is. The key word
in the new catch-phrase is "strategic", which means inter alia planned,
tactical, calculated, deliberate, premeditated and intentional.
It denotes that the (HR) partnership or alliance that is forged
must be well thought out and purposefully built on key business
elements that will assist the business in achieving its objectives.
It's less about the core elements of HR and more about the consolidated
and deliberate coming together of departments to achieve the desired
business goals, albeit by implementing department specific initiatives.
So what is holding HR back? In many cases, businesses fail to
recognise the strategic role that HR can play within the organisation.
By holding on to the image of HR as a back-office, reactionary,
administrative-unit businesses deprive themselves of the opportunity
of human resource excellence. HR practitioners, themselves, also
have to take some accountability for the poor image of HR - for
despite the understanding by some practitioners that HR desperately
needs to change, few know how.
The HR paradigm needs to shift in order for HR to strategically
align with the business - which in turn will facilitate a change
of business mindset about the value of HR. What is needed now is
a guideline that spells out the way forward for HR and that describes
the core elements of a 'strategic HR alliance'. This would provide
at the very least, a benchmark against which embryonic HR partnerships
can grow and develop.
Guideline 1: HR needs to understand the business
It is simply not enough for HR to understand what the business does.
Knowing the organisation's products and services does not enable
strategic partnerships. It's knowing how and why the organisation
does what it does, that enables HR to fully understand the nature
of the business. The organisation's mission, vision and values;
the business strategy; the business plan as well as the core business
drivers need to be fully understood by HR. In addition, HR needs
to gain an in-depth understanding of the organisation's value chain
as a whole, as well as a solid understanding of each link within
that chain. Without this comprehensive understanding of the business,
HR will remain a peripheral player in the business game.
Guideline 2: HR needs to be involved
Allied to understanding the business, HR needs to be involved -
in all aspects of business functioning. A true HR professional understands
all elements of the business, rather than just HR. Whilst it's inconceivable
that key business decisions would be taken without direct involvement
of departments such as Sales, Production, Distribution, etc every
day key business decisions are made without the involvement of HR.
It's a two-way street though - for HR to be involved with and by
the business, HR needs to be able to make meaningful contribution.
And therein lies the rub - to be involved, HR needs to be seen to
be adding significant business value (as a strategic business partner)
rather than an administrative entity.
Guideline 3: HR needs to be proactive
The perception of an HR business partner is a fickle thing. It often
depends on whom one speaks to as to what definition one gets. But
that in itself describes the nature of HR partnerships. It's all
about proactively defining what each business partner needs - from
an HR perspective - to achieve their business objectives. So it's
perfectly conceivable that the kind of HR service provided to Sales
at any given time may be very different to that needed by Production
during the same period. The only way to know what each department's
needs are - is to ask. Proactively set about meeting with key stakeholders
to discuss their needs, both current and future. HR needs to be
proactive - in finding out departmental needs and deliberately planning
solutions - with the business partners. To do that well, HR needs
to be able to talk through business issues in a way that reflects
a good understanding of not only the business but also the available
HR solutions.
Guideline 4: HR needs to be empowered
If HR is to be a strategic business partner, it stands to reason
that HR needs to be fully empowered. It is astounding that in many
organisations HR still does not have a voice on the Board. In this
day and age when HR issues often make or break an initiative - and
can carry severe legislative-led implications - it is imperative
that HR is given the empowerment it needs to develop into a strategic
business partner that controls and guides the management of employees.
Of course, in return HR practitioners need to be held fully accountable
for their actions (or non-actions) and must be able to show business
intent for their decision-making.
Guideline 5: HR needs to use business as a backdrop
It is not enough that HR understands the business and its drivers.
HR needs to learn to talk the business talk. This implies that HR
must understand how to interpret HR data so that it is meaningful
to the business and, conversely, how to take business information
and interpret it so that it makes HR sense. All HR assessments and
reporting should be done against the backdrop of the prevailing
business drivers, and should clearly identify consequences for the
organisation both immediate and future.
Guideline 6: HR needs to be professional
In order for HR to be identified by the business as a strategic
partner, there needs to be a clearly defined standard by which practitioners
operate. Empowerment and accountability are good words indeed, but
they demand from HR practitioners a certain level of functioning
that leads to the entitlement of credibility in a business sphere.
The debate whether HR should be professionalised or not rages on,
but certainly there is a dire need for HR standards. The truth is
self-evident - HR needs to provide organisations with a professional
service. In this case professional implies a solid understanding
of the business and its drivers; an expert-level understanding of
the full gamut of HR (or a specialised branch thereof) and the link
to the achievement of business objectives; and an in-depth understanding
of the acceptable standards by which HR solutions must be implemented
within an organisation. Organisations need to demand that HR practitioners
are able to meet the challenge of building - and maintaining - a
strategic HR alliance with their business units.
It is clear that the ideal HR business partnership is still a
way off for some organisations. The time is right for HR practitioners
to take a long, hard look at the way HR is positioned within their
organisations and use these guidelines to start the metamorphosis
that will lead HR out of the back-office and into the Boardroom.
Janine Nieuwoudt
Managing Director
BMT Dimensions
janinen@bmtdimensions.com
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