Dear Seniors, Greetings !!
I have been recently joined has HR & Admin executive. Its seems to be a generalist role. I want to groom up myself with all basic skills required to perform my role in the aspect of my career growth. planing to attended some HR programs if any that cud help me to gain more practical knowledge. Kindly help and guide me on to this. Awaiting your revert and guidance to enhance my performance in the new role.
Warm regds,
Divya V
From India, Chennai
10I have been recently joined has HR & Admin executive. Its seems to be a generalist role. I want to groom up myself with all basic skills required to perform my role in the aspect of my career growth. planing to attended some HR programs if any that cud help me to gain more practical knowledge. Kindly help and guide me on to this. Awaiting your revert and guidance to enhance my performance in the new role.
Warm regds,
Divya V
From India, Chennai
Hi Divya
If you are planning to develop step by step in HR Generalist then you shall start with the process like Attendance,
Framing Leave Policies,
Preparing Payroll,
Statutory like ESI, PF, PT etc
Compliance
Motivation,
Counseling with employees in regular intervals.
etc
I feel no any practical course is required for you. Slowly you shall learn things in CiteHR or consult the Sr. persons in this forum to gain knowledge
From India, Bangalore
If you are planning to develop step by step in HR Generalist then you shall start with the process like Attendance,
Framing Leave Policies,
Preparing Payroll,
Statutory like ESI, PF, PT etc
Compliance
Motivation,
Counseling with employees in regular intervals.
etc
I feel no any practical course is required for you. Slowly you shall learn things in CiteHR or consult the Sr. persons in this forum to gain knowledge
From India, Bangalore
Dear Divya,
From your query it seems that you are going to handle Generalist H R roll. You please concentrate on the below broad frame work. Slowly and gradually you will learn the things better.
HR
Manpower planing and forcasting
You see your current manpower/business plan/future requirements/demand and supply issues.
-Recruitment and Selection[
Data bank/Manpower consultants/school and colleges for placements/receiving and reviewing job applications/planning for interviews/calling and short listing candidates/preparing Job offer/appointment letters/Joining formalities
Training and Development
]nduction Traning for the new incumbent.
Regular Training (identification of training needs/preparing training calendars/conducting training programmes/evaluating the feedback for further improvements.
Performance Management
Having regular interaction with the HODs for periodic review of the performance of the employees/Rewards and letters
Employee Engagement Activities ; to getting optimum output and for the satisfaction of the manpower..
Rewards and Recognition
Adminsitration
Company canteen/pantry/security/stationary/vehicles/computers and printers/fax machines/telephones and mobiles/CCTV camars/furniture and fixtures/salary and wages/maintaining personal records /Liaison with Labour Deptt., Factories Deptt.,PF Deptt., ESIC Deptt.and other related departments/ Time Office administration./ Maintaining Overall House-Keeping of the plant/ Managing contractual manpower/ Complying with statutory provisions under different Labour Laws/overtime/exgratia etc……..
Welfare Measures
In addition to the statutory provisions, the professional companies stress on the welfare of the employees i.e.
- Loans and advances
- Conveyance facilities
- Accommodation arrangements
- Taking care of the families
- Schooling of the children of the employees
- Cultural activities
- Tours and travels
- Free medical check up camps
- Outside trainings of the employees
Industrial Relations : Regular interaction with the employees to have their feelings to act accordingly.
Further for motivation and counselling you go thru the good books and Citehr.However you should have
----- Patience
----- Good listining skills
----- Regular interaction with the employees
Always WATCH RELATIONS :
W : Words play very important roll. Be polite with others.
A : Attitude tells our intensions. Always have a positive attitude.
T : Trust and faith are the foundation of good industrial relations.
C : Character determines the maintenance of relations.Care for others
H : Be Humane
RELATIONS
R : Respect the fealings of others
E : Empathy
L : Listen carefully the opinions of others
A : Affirmative communication. Always try to create Win-Win situation.
T : Timely feedback.
I : Information on facts.
O : Obligation fullfilment
N : Never put others down.
S : Stong desire to create and maintain relations
With Best Wishes
From India, New Delhi
From your query it seems that you are going to handle Generalist H R roll. You please concentrate on the below broad frame work. Slowly and gradually you will learn the things better.
HR
Manpower planing and forcasting
You see your current manpower/business plan/future requirements/demand and supply issues.
-Recruitment and Selection[
Data bank/Manpower consultants/school and colleges for placements/receiving and reviewing job applications/planning for interviews/calling and short listing candidates/preparing Job offer/appointment letters/Joining formalities
Training and Development
]nduction Traning for the new incumbent.
Regular Training (identification of training needs/preparing training calendars/conducting training programmes/evaluating the feedback for further improvements.
Performance Management
Having regular interaction with the HODs for periodic review of the performance of the employees/Rewards and letters
Employee Engagement Activities ; to getting optimum output and for the satisfaction of the manpower..
Rewards and Recognition
Adminsitration
Company canteen/pantry/security/stationary/vehicles/computers and printers/fax machines/telephones and mobiles/CCTV camars/furniture and fixtures/salary and wages/maintaining personal records /Liaison with Labour Deptt., Factories Deptt.,PF Deptt., ESIC Deptt.and other related departments/ Time Office administration./ Maintaining Overall House-Keeping of the plant/ Managing contractual manpower/ Complying with statutory provisions under different Labour Laws/overtime/exgratia etc……..
Welfare Measures
In addition to the statutory provisions, the professional companies stress on the welfare of the employees i.e.
- Loans and advances
- Conveyance facilities
- Accommodation arrangements
- Taking care of the families
- Schooling of the children of the employees
- Cultural activities
- Tours and travels
- Free medical check up camps
- Outside trainings of the employees
Industrial Relations : Regular interaction with the employees to have their feelings to act accordingly.
Further for motivation and counselling you go thru the good books and Citehr.However you should have
----- Patience
----- Good listining skills
----- Regular interaction with the employees
Always WATCH RELATIONS :
W : Words play very important roll. Be polite with others.
A : Attitude tells our intensions. Always have a positive attitude.
T : Trust and faith are the foundation of good industrial relations.
C : Character determines the maintenance of relations.Care for others
H : Be Humane
RELATIONS
R : Respect the fealings of others
E : Empathy
L : Listen carefully the opinions of others
A : Affirmative communication. Always try to create Win-Win situation.
T : Timely feedback.
I : Information on facts.
O : Obligation fullfilment
N : Never put others down.
S : Stong desire to create and maintain relations
With Best Wishes
From India, New Delhi
Dear Ms. Divya,
Firstly my heartiest congratulations on your being appointed as a HR/Administration Executive. Let me confess you have now been admitted into a school in which the learning is going to be life long. I'm not sure if you are in the manufacturing sector or the IT/ITES, but I need to clarify that IT/ITES have taken HR to a high expertise level as each of the branches of HR are broken into broad parts like
Talent Acquisition,
Organization Development,
HR Engagement and
HR Operations.
Each of these have further sub-divisions
Talent Acquisition - Resources Planning, Hiring Strategy, Staffing, Campus Relationships, Branding, Channel Building, Out-sourcing Contract/Vendor Management, On-boarding, Employee Touch points co-ordination, Reference checks, .....
Organization Development - HR Policies and Practices (Making, Implementation, Tracking and Monitoring), Career Development, Training and Development, Performance Management, Rewards and Recognition, Leadership Development, ....
HR Engagement- Consistent Communications, Employee Assimilation, Employee Deployment, Employee Advocacy, Performance Tracking, Employee Development, Coaching Employees, Career Planning, Career Growth and Options, Mentoring and Counseling, Work-Life Balance and Recreation.
HR Operations - Talent and Employee Mapping, Process mapping, New Hire Touch point Mapping, Dashboard Reporting on HR Information system (Personal, Performance, Compliance, Growth and Compensation data), Pay Roll management, Standardizations, Employee Letters, Exit Interviews and Exit Management, etc.,
HR Generalist Jobs
A human resources generalist is a person who manages all human resources activities required for a given company’s staff. In general, the human resources generalist handles process improvement projects within the organization, which includes title normalization, performance management improvement, and the establishment of training plans associated with well-defined career ladders.
A human resources generalist also provides direct support to the CIO, VPs, managers, and employees within the organization. A human resources generalist’s job also involves the management of employee inventories, the handling of employee relationship issues, payroll processing, confidential compensation and benefits information, terminations, employee performance evaluations, and performance management process improvements.
A human resources generalist often has experience in managing HR processes for an organization of similar size and complexity. To become a human resources generalist, one needs to have considerable experience in hiring managers to organize and execute processes associated with identifying and hiring information technology employees. For a human resources generalist’s job, one also usually has to have experience screening candidates, coordinating interviews with hiring managers, and managing post-interview correspondence.
Human Resources are vital to an organization's success. Effective management of human resources is necessary for all organizations in order to ensure that the right people are doing the right type of job in the organization. Since organizations are giving more and more importance to the management and development of human resources, need for people who can efficiently do this task is also increasing and therefore HR jobs are being offered by all organizations.
HR generalists are specialists who manage the day to day operations of the human resource office. They look after the hiring, training and selection of employees. They also evaluate the performance of employees and decide about their salaries and other benefits.
In any organization, anyone employed in HR generalist jobs are required to fulfill the following responsibilities.
Recruiting the right kind of staff.
Evaluating and measuring employee performance.
Developing employee training systems.
Managing employee development.
Maintaining documents related to employees.
Managing orientation and induction of employees.
Maintaining good working relations with employees.
Ensuring good relations between employees.
Developing plans for safety and welfare of employees.
Administering the compensation packages.
Arranging for counseling of employees.
Reporting to and advising the top management about personnel issues.
Developing and implementing departmental plans and goals.
Monitoring the annual budget.
Maintaining and updating employee information on the company’s website.
Reviewing employee salaries periodically.
Protecting the interests of employees.
Listening to employee grievances.
To be an sucessful in a HR Generalist's role the following nine skills are the must:
Organised
Multitasking
Discretion and Business Ethics
Dual Focus
Employee Trust
Fairness
Dedication to Continuous Improvement
Strategic Orientation
Team Orientation
What I have basically attempted is to give you a very borad outline of things that are and what the expectations of employers would be (indirectly what are the skills that you need to possess or equip yourself with). There is a lot of work that has to be done, ad you are now "WORK IN PROGESS" WITH NO FINISH TIME, so there are only four possible movements (1) movement forward; (2) movement backward; (3) movement splattered in all directions; (4) no movement at all.
I believe things will take shape provided you keep your curiousity of learning high, and learn the apply whatever learning so that you gain confidence. Pray you get a good mentor, or a set of good professional friends who have achived somthing worthwhile in their professional/personal life. Again I must confess what I have done is just to scratch the surface.
I can make an offer to you or anyone else here who would want to be "coached" - and my contact detail would be
I'm sure there would be many like me who are very capable and can lend their support to you in the growth phase. We need to help each other to make this a floorishing community of professionals. HR is a very "specialized subject" and it has to be in the hands of responsible people.
I manage to collect this up late last year:
Exclusive:
The six competencies to inspire HR professionals for 2012
Dave Ulrich and colleagues, 04 Jan 2012
HR Magazine - Exclusive: The six competencies to inspire HR professionals for 2012
Modern HR must take on many roles to demonstrate competence and effectiveness, say DAVE ULRICH, JON YOUNGER, WAYNE BROCKBANK and MIKE ULRICH, who celebrate 25 years of research. Can HR turn base metal into gold? A first cut of the results... Additional interviews by DAVID WOODS
Any good HR professional wants to be better. This begins with a desire to improve, followed by a clear understanding of what it requires to improve.
As the number of global HR professionals climbs close to one million, so it becomes important for this relatively new profession to define what it means to be effective. HR effectiveness matters more than ever, because leaders of businesses and not-for-profit organisations increasingly recognise the importance of individual abilities (talent), organisation capabilities (culture) and leadership as key to their success. HR professionals should become insightful advisers and architects on these matters. In a constantly changing world, there has never been a greater need to identify what HR professionals must be, know, do and deliver to contribute more fully to their organisations.
Since 1987 - 25 years and still counting - we've chronicled what it means to be an effective HR professional. Our 2012 data set marks six waves of data collection that trace the evolution of the HR profession (see methodology).
This research is important because it defines what it means to be an effective HR professional: not just knowing the body of knowledge that defines the profession, but being able to apply that knowledge to business challenges.
In this round of research, we have identified six domains of competencies HR professionals must demonstrate to be personally effective and to have an impact on business performance. These competencies respond to a number of themes facing global business today:
outside/in: HR must turn outside business trends and stakeholder expectations into internal actions
business/people: HR should focus on both business results and human capital improvement
individual/organisational: HR should target both individual ability and organisation capabilities
event/sustainability: HR is not about an isolated activity (a training, communication, staffing, or compensation programme) but sustainable and integrated solutions
past/future: respect HR's heritage, but shape a future
administrative/strategic: HR must attend to both day-to-day administrative processes and long-term strategic practices.
Our research found that by upgrading their competencies in six domains, HR professionals can respond to these business themes and create sustainable value.
These six HR competence domains come from assessment by HR professionals and line associates (more than 20,000 global respondents) of 139 specific competency-stated survey items.
Strategic positioner. High-performing HR professionals think and act from the outside/in. They are deeply knowledgeable about external business trends and able to translate them into internal decisions and actions. They understand the general business conditions (eg social, technological, economic, political, environmental and demographic trends) that affect their industry and geography. They target and serve key customers of their organisation by identifying customer segments, knowing customer expectations and aligning organisation actions to meet customer needs. They also co-create their organisations' strategic responses to business conditions and customer expectations by helping frame and make strategic and organisation choices.
Credible activist. Effective HR professionals are 'credible activists' because they build their personal trust through business acumen. Credibility comes when HR professionals do what they promise, build personal relationships of trust and can be relied on. It helps HR professionals have positive personal relationships. It means to communicate clear and consistent messages with integrity.
As an activist, HR professionals have a point of view, not only about HR activities, but about business demands. As activists, HR professionals learn how to influence others in a positive way through clear, consistent and high-impact communications. Some have called this 'HR with an attitude'. HR professionals who are credible but not activists are admired, but do not have much impact. Those who are activists but not credible may have good ideas, but not much attention will be given to them. To be credible activists, HR professionals need to be self-aware and committed to building their profession.
Capability builder. An effective HR professional melds individual abilities into an effective and strong organisation by helping to define and build its organisation capabilities. Organisation is not structure or process: it is a distinct set of capabilities. Capability represents what the organisation is good at and known for. HR professionals should be able to audit and invest in the creation of organisational capabilities. These capabilities outlast the behaviour or performance of any individual manager or system. Capabilities have been referred to as a company's culture, process, or identity.
HR professionals should facilitate capability audits to determine the identity of their organisations. Capabilities include: customer service, speed, quality, efficiency, innovation and collaboration. One such capability is to create an organisation where employees find meaning and purpose at work. HR professionals can help line managers create meaning, so that the capability of the organisation reflects the deeper values of the employees.
Change champion. As change champions, HR professionals make sure that isolated and independent organisational actions are integrated and sustained through disciplined change processes. HR professionals make an organisation's internal capacity for change match or lead the external pace of change. As change champions, HR professionals help change happen at institutional (changing patterns), initiative (making things happen) and individual (enabling personal change) levels. To make change happen at these three levels, HR professionals play two critical roles in the change process. First, they initiate change, which means they build a case for why change matters, overcome resistance to change, engage key stakeholders in the process of change and articulate the decisions to start change.
Second, they sustain change by institutionalising change through organisational resources, organisation structure, communication and continual learning. As change champions, HR professionals partner to create organisations that are agile, flexible, responsive and able to make transformation happen in ways that create sustainable value.
Human resource innovator and integrator. Effective HR professionals know the historical research on HR, so they can innovative and integrate HR practices into unified solutions to solve future business problems. They must know the latest insights on key HR practice areas related to human capital (talent sourcing, talent development), to performance accountability (appraisal, rewards), organisation design (teamwork, organisation development) and communication. They must also be able to turn these unique HR practice areas into integrated solutions, generally around an organisation's leadership brand. These innovative and integrated HR practices then result in a high impact on business results by ensuring that HR practices maintain their focus over the long run and do not become seduced by HR 'flavour of the month' or by another firm's 'best practices'.
Technology proponent. In recent years, technology has changed the ways in which HR people think and do their administrative and strategic work. At a basic level, HR professionals need to use technology more efficiently to deliver HR administrative systems such as benefits, payroll processing, healthcare costs and other administrative services. HR professionals also need to use technology to help people stay connected with each other. Technology plays an increasingly important role in improving communications, organising administrative work more efficiently and connecting inside employees to outside customers. An emerging technology trend is using technology as a relationship-building tool through social media. Leveraging social media enables the business to position itself for future growth. Those who understand technology will create improved organisational identity outside the company and improve social relationships inside the company. As technology exponents, HR professionals have to access, advocate, analyse and align technology for information, efficiency and relationships.
Because these six domains of HR competence respond to the external trends we identified, they have an impact on both the perception of the effectiveness of the HR professional and on business performance where the HR professional works.
This data shows that to be seen as personally effective, HR professionals need to be credible activists who build relationships of trust and have a strong business and HR point of view. They also have to have a mix of competencies in positioning the firm to its external environment (strategic positioner), doing organisation capability and culture audits (capability builder), making change happen (change champion), aligning and innovating HR practices (HR integrator) and understanding and using technology (technology proponent). These competencies explain 42.5% of the effectiveness of an HR professional.
We found that this same pattern of HR competencies holds true across regions of the world, across levels of HR careers, in different HR roles and in organisations of all sizes.
HR competencies also explain 8.4% of an organisation's success. But it is interesting that the competencies that predict personal effectiveness are slightly different to those that predict business success, with insights on technology, HR integration and capability building having more impact on business results. The key issue is for HR professionals and departments to work together and to mutually reinforce their efforts so they collectively achieve high performance.
These findings begin to capture what HR professionals need to know and do to be effective. Some implications of the data for HR professionals include:
Learn to do HR from the outside/in, understand social, technological, economic, political, environmental and demographic trends facing your industry and knowing specific expectations of customers, investors, regulators and communities - then building internal HR responses that align with these external requirements
Build a relationship of trust with your business leaders by knowing enough about business contexts and key stakeholders to fully engage in business discussions, by offering innovative, integrated HR solutions to business problems and by being able to audit and improve talent, culture and leadership. Earn trust by delivering what you promise
Understand the key organisational capabilities required for your organisation to achieve its strategic goals and meet the expectations of customers, investors and communities. Do an organisation audit that focuses on assessing key capabilities your company requires for success and their implications for staffing, training, compensation, communication and other HR practices
Make change happen at individual, initiative and institutional level. Help individuals learn and sustain new behaviours. Enable organisation change by applying a disciplined change process to each organisational initiative. Encourage institutional change by monitoring and adapting the culture to fit external conditions. Be able to turn isolated events into integrated and sustainable solutions.
Innovate and integrate your HR practices. Innovation means looking forward with fresh and creative ways to design and deliver HR practices. Integrate these practices around talent, leadership and culture within your organisation, so HR offers sustainable solutions to business problems. Evolve your organisation's HR investments to solve future problems.
Master technology, both to deliver the administrative work of HR and to connect people inside and outside to each other. Make social media a reality by using technology to share information and connect people both inside and outside your organisation.
We also found that an effective HR department has more impact on a business's performance (31%) than the skills of individual HR professionals (8%). HR professionals need to work together as a unified team to fully create business value..
Conclusion
We are optimistic about the present and future of the HR profession and we have empirical reasons for our optimism. We now have specific insights on what HR professionals need to know and do to become better and more effective at delivering value to employees, organisations, customers, investors and communities. We know the HR department should excel at helping businesses be successful.
DAVE ULRICH is a professor at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan and a partner at RBL Group, a consulting firm aiming to help organisations and leaders deliver value. He has published widely and this year was ranked number one in HR magazine's list of most influential international thinkers. JON YOUNGER is a partner of RBL Group and leads the strategic HR practice area. WAYNE BROCKBANK is partner emeritus at RBL Group. He has been a clinical professor of business at Ross School of Business and a consultant and executive educator at RBL. MIKE ULRICH is a research associate at RBL Group, focused on research methods and statistical analysis.
Regads,
Raman
From India, Hyderabad
Firstly my heartiest congratulations on your being appointed as a HR/Administration Executive. Let me confess you have now been admitted into a school in which the learning is going to be life long. I'm not sure if you are in the manufacturing sector or the IT/ITES, but I need to clarify that IT/ITES have taken HR to a high expertise level as each of the branches of HR are broken into broad parts like
Talent Acquisition,
Organization Development,
HR Engagement and
HR Operations.
Each of these have further sub-divisions
Talent Acquisition - Resources Planning, Hiring Strategy, Staffing, Campus Relationships, Branding, Channel Building, Out-sourcing Contract/Vendor Management, On-boarding, Employee Touch points co-ordination, Reference checks, .....
Organization Development - HR Policies and Practices (Making, Implementation, Tracking and Monitoring), Career Development, Training and Development, Performance Management, Rewards and Recognition, Leadership Development, ....
HR Engagement- Consistent Communications, Employee Assimilation, Employee Deployment, Employee Advocacy, Performance Tracking, Employee Development, Coaching Employees, Career Planning, Career Growth and Options, Mentoring and Counseling, Work-Life Balance and Recreation.
HR Operations - Talent and Employee Mapping, Process mapping, New Hire Touch point Mapping, Dashboard Reporting on HR Information system (Personal, Performance, Compliance, Growth and Compensation data), Pay Roll management, Standardizations, Employee Letters, Exit Interviews and Exit Management, etc.,
HR Generalist Jobs
A human resources generalist is a person who manages all human resources activities required for a given company’s staff. In general, the human resources generalist handles process improvement projects within the organization, which includes title normalization, performance management improvement, and the establishment of training plans associated with well-defined career ladders.
A human resources generalist also provides direct support to the CIO, VPs, managers, and employees within the organization. A human resources generalist’s job also involves the management of employee inventories, the handling of employee relationship issues, payroll processing, confidential compensation and benefits information, terminations, employee performance evaluations, and performance management process improvements.
A human resources generalist often has experience in managing HR processes for an organization of similar size and complexity. To become a human resources generalist, one needs to have considerable experience in hiring managers to organize and execute processes associated with identifying and hiring information technology employees. For a human resources generalist’s job, one also usually has to have experience screening candidates, coordinating interviews with hiring managers, and managing post-interview correspondence.
Human Resources are vital to an organization's success. Effective management of human resources is necessary for all organizations in order to ensure that the right people are doing the right type of job in the organization. Since organizations are giving more and more importance to the management and development of human resources, need for people who can efficiently do this task is also increasing and therefore HR jobs are being offered by all organizations.
HR generalists are specialists who manage the day to day operations of the human resource office. They look after the hiring, training and selection of employees. They also evaluate the performance of employees and decide about their salaries and other benefits.
In any organization, anyone employed in HR generalist jobs are required to fulfill the following responsibilities.
Recruiting the right kind of staff.
Evaluating and measuring employee performance.
Developing employee training systems.
Managing employee development.
Maintaining documents related to employees.
Managing orientation and induction of employees.
Maintaining good working relations with employees.
Ensuring good relations between employees.
Developing plans for safety and welfare of employees.
Administering the compensation packages.
Arranging for counseling of employees.
Reporting to and advising the top management about personnel issues.
Developing and implementing departmental plans and goals.
Monitoring the annual budget.
Maintaining and updating employee information on the company’s website.
Reviewing employee salaries periodically.
Protecting the interests of employees.
Listening to employee grievances.
To be an sucessful in a HR Generalist's role the following nine skills are the must:
Organised
Multitasking
Discretion and Business Ethics
Dual Focus
Employee Trust
Fairness
Dedication to Continuous Improvement
Strategic Orientation
Team Orientation
What I have basically attempted is to give you a very borad outline of things that are and what the expectations of employers would be (indirectly what are the skills that you need to possess or equip yourself with). There is a lot of work that has to be done, ad you are now "WORK IN PROGESS" WITH NO FINISH TIME, so there are only four possible movements (1) movement forward; (2) movement backward; (3) movement splattered in all directions; (4) no movement at all.
I believe things will take shape provided you keep your curiousity of learning high, and learn the apply whatever learning so that you gain confidence. Pray you get a good mentor, or a set of good professional friends who have achived somthing worthwhile in their professional/personal life. Again I must confess what I have done is just to scratch the surface.
I can make an offer to you or anyone else here who would want to be "coached" - and my contact detail would be
I'm sure there would be many like me who are very capable and can lend their support to you in the growth phase. We need to help each other to make this a floorishing community of professionals. HR is a very "specialized subject" and it has to be in the hands of responsible people.
I manage to collect this up late last year:
Exclusive:
The six competencies to inspire HR professionals for 2012
Dave Ulrich and colleagues, 04 Jan 2012
HR Magazine - Exclusive: The six competencies to inspire HR professionals for 2012
Modern HR must take on many roles to demonstrate competence and effectiveness, say DAVE ULRICH, JON YOUNGER, WAYNE BROCKBANK and MIKE ULRICH, who celebrate 25 years of research. Can HR turn base metal into gold? A first cut of the results... Additional interviews by DAVID WOODS
Any good HR professional wants to be better. This begins with a desire to improve, followed by a clear understanding of what it requires to improve.
As the number of global HR professionals climbs close to one million, so it becomes important for this relatively new profession to define what it means to be effective. HR effectiveness matters more than ever, because leaders of businesses and not-for-profit organisations increasingly recognise the importance of individual abilities (talent), organisation capabilities (culture) and leadership as key to their success. HR professionals should become insightful advisers and architects on these matters. In a constantly changing world, there has never been a greater need to identify what HR professionals must be, know, do and deliver to contribute more fully to their organisations.
Since 1987 - 25 years and still counting - we've chronicled what it means to be an effective HR professional. Our 2012 data set marks six waves of data collection that trace the evolution of the HR profession (see methodology).
This research is important because it defines what it means to be an effective HR professional: not just knowing the body of knowledge that defines the profession, but being able to apply that knowledge to business challenges.
In this round of research, we have identified six domains of competencies HR professionals must demonstrate to be personally effective and to have an impact on business performance. These competencies respond to a number of themes facing global business today:
outside/in: HR must turn outside business trends and stakeholder expectations into internal actions
business/people: HR should focus on both business results and human capital improvement
individual/organisational: HR should target both individual ability and organisation capabilities
event/sustainability: HR is not about an isolated activity (a training, communication, staffing, or compensation programme) but sustainable and integrated solutions
past/future: respect HR's heritage, but shape a future
administrative/strategic: HR must attend to both day-to-day administrative processes and long-term strategic practices.
Our research found that by upgrading their competencies in six domains, HR professionals can respond to these business themes and create sustainable value.
These six HR competence domains come from assessment by HR professionals and line associates (more than 20,000 global respondents) of 139 specific competency-stated survey items.
Strategic positioner. High-performing HR professionals think and act from the outside/in. They are deeply knowledgeable about external business trends and able to translate them into internal decisions and actions. They understand the general business conditions (eg social, technological, economic, political, environmental and demographic trends) that affect their industry and geography. They target and serve key customers of their organisation by identifying customer segments, knowing customer expectations and aligning organisation actions to meet customer needs. They also co-create their organisations' strategic responses to business conditions and customer expectations by helping frame and make strategic and organisation choices.
Credible activist. Effective HR professionals are 'credible activists' because they build their personal trust through business acumen. Credibility comes when HR professionals do what they promise, build personal relationships of trust and can be relied on. It helps HR professionals have positive personal relationships. It means to communicate clear and consistent messages with integrity.
As an activist, HR professionals have a point of view, not only about HR activities, but about business demands. As activists, HR professionals learn how to influence others in a positive way through clear, consistent and high-impact communications. Some have called this 'HR with an attitude'. HR professionals who are credible but not activists are admired, but do not have much impact. Those who are activists but not credible may have good ideas, but not much attention will be given to them. To be credible activists, HR professionals need to be self-aware and committed to building their profession.
Capability builder. An effective HR professional melds individual abilities into an effective and strong organisation by helping to define and build its organisation capabilities. Organisation is not structure or process: it is a distinct set of capabilities. Capability represents what the organisation is good at and known for. HR professionals should be able to audit and invest in the creation of organisational capabilities. These capabilities outlast the behaviour or performance of any individual manager or system. Capabilities have been referred to as a company's culture, process, or identity.
HR professionals should facilitate capability audits to determine the identity of their organisations. Capabilities include: customer service, speed, quality, efficiency, innovation and collaboration. One such capability is to create an organisation where employees find meaning and purpose at work. HR professionals can help line managers create meaning, so that the capability of the organisation reflects the deeper values of the employees.
Change champion. As change champions, HR professionals make sure that isolated and independent organisational actions are integrated and sustained through disciplined change processes. HR professionals make an organisation's internal capacity for change match or lead the external pace of change. As change champions, HR professionals help change happen at institutional (changing patterns), initiative (making things happen) and individual (enabling personal change) levels. To make change happen at these three levels, HR professionals play two critical roles in the change process. First, they initiate change, which means they build a case for why change matters, overcome resistance to change, engage key stakeholders in the process of change and articulate the decisions to start change.
Second, they sustain change by institutionalising change through organisational resources, organisation structure, communication and continual learning. As change champions, HR professionals partner to create organisations that are agile, flexible, responsive and able to make transformation happen in ways that create sustainable value.
Human resource innovator and integrator. Effective HR professionals know the historical research on HR, so they can innovative and integrate HR practices into unified solutions to solve future business problems. They must know the latest insights on key HR practice areas related to human capital (talent sourcing, talent development), to performance accountability (appraisal, rewards), organisation design (teamwork, organisation development) and communication. They must also be able to turn these unique HR practice areas into integrated solutions, generally around an organisation's leadership brand. These innovative and integrated HR practices then result in a high impact on business results by ensuring that HR practices maintain their focus over the long run and do not become seduced by HR 'flavour of the month' or by another firm's 'best practices'.
Technology proponent. In recent years, technology has changed the ways in which HR people think and do their administrative and strategic work. At a basic level, HR professionals need to use technology more efficiently to deliver HR administrative systems such as benefits, payroll processing, healthcare costs and other administrative services. HR professionals also need to use technology to help people stay connected with each other. Technology plays an increasingly important role in improving communications, organising administrative work more efficiently and connecting inside employees to outside customers. An emerging technology trend is using technology as a relationship-building tool through social media. Leveraging social media enables the business to position itself for future growth. Those who understand technology will create improved organisational identity outside the company and improve social relationships inside the company. As technology exponents, HR professionals have to access, advocate, analyse and align technology for information, efficiency and relationships.
Because these six domains of HR competence respond to the external trends we identified, they have an impact on both the perception of the effectiveness of the HR professional and on business performance where the HR professional works.
This data shows that to be seen as personally effective, HR professionals need to be credible activists who build relationships of trust and have a strong business and HR point of view. They also have to have a mix of competencies in positioning the firm to its external environment (strategic positioner), doing organisation capability and culture audits (capability builder), making change happen (change champion), aligning and innovating HR practices (HR integrator) and understanding and using technology (technology proponent). These competencies explain 42.5% of the effectiveness of an HR professional.
We found that this same pattern of HR competencies holds true across regions of the world, across levels of HR careers, in different HR roles and in organisations of all sizes.
HR competencies also explain 8.4% of an organisation's success. But it is interesting that the competencies that predict personal effectiveness are slightly different to those that predict business success, with insights on technology, HR integration and capability building having more impact on business results. The key issue is for HR professionals and departments to work together and to mutually reinforce their efforts so they collectively achieve high performance.
These findings begin to capture what HR professionals need to know and do to be effective. Some implications of the data for HR professionals include:
Learn to do HR from the outside/in, understand social, technological, economic, political, environmental and demographic trends facing your industry and knowing specific expectations of customers, investors, regulators and communities - then building internal HR responses that align with these external requirements
Build a relationship of trust with your business leaders by knowing enough about business contexts and key stakeholders to fully engage in business discussions, by offering innovative, integrated HR solutions to business problems and by being able to audit and improve talent, culture and leadership. Earn trust by delivering what you promise
Understand the key organisational capabilities required for your organisation to achieve its strategic goals and meet the expectations of customers, investors and communities. Do an organisation audit that focuses on assessing key capabilities your company requires for success and their implications for staffing, training, compensation, communication and other HR practices
Make change happen at individual, initiative and institutional level. Help individuals learn and sustain new behaviours. Enable organisation change by applying a disciplined change process to each organisational initiative. Encourage institutional change by monitoring and adapting the culture to fit external conditions. Be able to turn isolated events into integrated and sustainable solutions.
Innovate and integrate your HR practices. Innovation means looking forward with fresh and creative ways to design and deliver HR practices. Integrate these practices around talent, leadership and culture within your organisation, so HR offers sustainable solutions to business problems. Evolve your organisation's HR investments to solve future problems.
Master technology, both to deliver the administrative work of HR and to connect people inside and outside to each other. Make social media a reality by using technology to share information and connect people both inside and outside your organisation.
We also found that an effective HR department has more impact on a business's performance (31%) than the skills of individual HR professionals (8%). HR professionals need to work together as a unified team to fully create business value..
Conclusion
We are optimistic about the present and future of the HR profession and we have empirical reasons for our optimism. We now have specific insights on what HR professionals need to know and do to become better and more effective at delivering value to employees, organisations, customers, investors and communities. We know the HR department should excel at helping businesses be successful.
DAVE ULRICH is a professor at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan and a partner at RBL Group, a consulting firm aiming to help organisations and leaders deliver value. He has published widely and this year was ranked number one in HR magazine's list of most influential international thinkers. JON YOUNGER is a partner of RBL Group and leads the strategic HR practice area. WAYNE BROCKBANK is partner emeritus at RBL Group. He has been a clinical professor of business at Ross School of Business and a consultant and executive educator at RBL. MIKE ULRICH is a research associate at RBL Group, focused on research methods and statistical analysis.
Regads,
Raman
From India, Hyderabad
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