If an HR Department Sets Policy in the Woods and No One Listens, Does It Make a Sound?

Posted on Thursday, June 7, 2007 by Frank Roche

I had some other choice titles for this article that I abandoned because, well, because. They included these gems:

HR Sucks and They Don’t Even Know It. Maybe a little too coarse. And it’s not that HR really sucks, it’s more like they don’t even get a chance to.
HR Starring in a Remake of Clueless. What they don’t know won’t hurt them, right? Ignorance is bliss and all that blather.
HR Gets a Place at the Table — The Kids Table. Don’t speak until spoken to? That might be right for little kids, but I mean, it’s HR we’re talking about here. The Human Capital people.

Well, cooler heads prevailed, and JT suggested this title and a link to an article that got me going on my little jag. Business Leaders Don’t See HR as Key To People Strategies appeared in Workforce Management with this introduction:

According to a new survey, only 23 percent of corporate leaders believe their HR departments play a crucial role in coming up with corporate strategy and have a significant impact on operating results.

Hey, that’s a little depressing, non? So what’s HR to do? It looks like it may be as much about turning around prevailing attitudes as it is about “having a place at the table.” The study by Deloitte Touche Tomatsu and The Economist Intelligence Unit seems to suggest that HR needs a marketing push:

[M]any business executives have a negative view of their HR departments. Only 4 percent felt their companies had “world class” HR and people management, while 31 percent said that significant improvement was needed. And while 52 percent of HR leaders believe they are major contributors in shaping a company’s culture, only 32 percent of business executives saw their HR leaders that way.

Zoiks! Four percent? I mean, that’s just sad. How’s that possible? Does that mean that, for the most part, HR is the B-team? Perhaps all that hand wringing by HR professional organizations is on the mark. We’ve been hearing for years about HR “having a place at the table.” How’s 2015 suit you? That’s what a PWC study of HR directors uncovered:

Almost two-thirds of HR directors believe there will be a chief of human resources on the board of most organisations by 2015, research has revealed.

Okay, I’m gasping. 2015!? There’s thinking big. Let’s plan eight years out. How about now? Does now work for you? “Go big or go home” is how one senior executive I know in the retail business says it. Now’s the time to stop talking about a place at the table and actually get one. These studies show that wanting to be at the grownup table doesn’t work. You’re a big kid now. It’s time to step up, grab a chair, and declare your place.

User Comments

robert edward cenek

Jun 7th, 2007

Frank:

I always enjoy articles that report on the effectiveness and value of HR. They always drive me to reflect on my nearly 30 years of experience in the field, and ask whether the function has improved or remained the same.

In many respects I think that “blame” can be shared among all camps. I have seen very bright, articulate, and strategic HR leaders relegated to lesser roles because they had the misfortune of reporting into a granite head. Over time, these people do move on to other organizations that truly practice the motto – “people are our most important asset.”

I have also witnessed senior HR people who were more chameleon-like than Forrest Gump, or who were consumate administrivia experts who can recite specific pieces of code from the FMLA, but who were socially inept or lacked confidence in front of the Board.

In general however, an HR leader with strong conceptual thinking and emotional intelligence abilities will excel in most organizations.

robert edward cenek, RODP
http://www.cenekreport.com
Uncommon Commentary on the World of Work
Frank Roche

Jun 7th, 2007

Hi Robert, I’ve seen a parallel over the couple of decades that I’ve been playing in HR, as well. I have worked with some really amazing HR leaders who have had more than a place at the table, and I’ve seen my share of “chameleons.”

That whole “place at the table” issue keeps hanging around. I think some have solved it…I certainly know one senior HR leader right now who’s leading the charge…but until the administrivia is looked at as just what it is, I’m afraid asking to be at the table will fall on deaf ears.

Well said about conceptual thinking and emotional intelligence…that will win out. I just hope it’s not in 2015!
Mel Kleiman

Jun 8th, 2007

Robert: I think you had some great titles there and sorry you did use some of them. For over 30 years I have worked with and in many case around (avoided) HR Professionals. As long as I can remember they have been talking about a seat at the table. But as the old one liner goes “Actions speak louder then words.” Those HR executives and they are few and far between who have earned a seat at the big table don’t talk about getting no respect they go out and earn the respect they need by earning the seat at the table. They prove their worth by not only understanding the importance of people in the success of what ever business they are in but take a stand on the important issues and understand and can prove the impact that either good or poor personnel practice have on the business.

In most cases HR may recognize there is a problem but until they realize that their problem is really a operations pain and they help the operation group to over come that pain they are just an overhead department.
robert edward cenek

Jun 9th, 2007

Mel”

Ditto….with the exception that I believe more HR folks are in fact in at the BIG TABLE than what you surmise.

Some folks are highly competent, and in some settings are justified in voicing displeasure about not having a seat at the table. Yes, some should earn it, but again unfortunately report into individuals who would not know a strategic HR thinker if one landed on their desk.

A former work colleague of mine, who I might add is one of the sharpest HR executives that I have known, did a 6 month stint with one of America’s top new economy companies whose founder is glorified as a diety. His message to me….The guy was a total jerk that absolutely knew nothing about human behavior. He moved on, and now runs an HR department with 300 staff members, for one of America’s top financial companies. He did the right thing.

My experience has been that those who are the most negative about the HR function are quite often individuals who would have the most to gain by taking some their advice.

robert edward cenek, RODP
wwww.cenekreport.com
Uncommon Commentary on the World of Work
Scott McArthur

Jun 10th, 2007

Good debate. Perhaps what we need is to get some good old fashioned systemic thinking in the workplace to help the HRphobes understand?
robert edward cenek

Jun 10th, 2007

Scott:

I think that we are getting warm on what tends to drive, or at least influence negativity toward the HR function. Here is an interesting piece taken from the Taleo blog.

Academic Study Proves Value of HR Performance

It’s always gratifying when a study proves what you intuitively know. Professors from Florida State University and Auburn University used a technique called meta-analysis to mathematically combine the findings of 92 previous studies covering 19,319 organizations published since the mid-1980s.

They produced the study, How Much Do High-Performance Work Practices Matter? A Meta-Analysis of Their Effects on Organizational Performance, published in the autumn issue of Personnel Psychology.

Key Conclusions:

• When a company emphasizes human resource activities such as incentive pay and flextime, it can enjoy a 10 to 20 percent improvement in employee retention, employee productivity, profitability and stock price.

• Conversely, companies which cut spending on human resource programs can expect to see their bottom line shrink by up to 20 percent.

• Performance improvements are stronger when companies take a systematic approach to human resources rather than implementing one or two practices.

• When companies cut their HR budgets—which was often the first place to save dollars when the economy took a slide—it had a knockdown effect on retention, productivity, profitability, and stock price.

Study co-author and Lowder Eminent Scholar at Auburn University, Dave Ketchen said: “Over the last 25 years, corporate America has debated whether the human resources function adds value or if it is just a necessary evil. Our results show that negative images of human resource managers miss the mark. Skilled HR managers can make the difference between a company making a profit or losing money.”
Barrett

Aug 15th, 2007

The ability to get HR out of sight and out of mind is here now. They are called PEOs (Professional Employer Organizations). In a nutshell, they outsource HR through employee leasing to get even smaller companies fortune 500 benefits. I work for an unbiased broker of these companies. Email me if anyone is having headaches and wants to know more.