HR, understanding business and practising ownership

What HR should spend time on and what it should not.

I strongly believe that the primary function of HR is to prepare the organization to face business challenges. HR has to continuously develop strategies for ensuring organizational readiness to meet the current as well as future business challenges. It starts with understanding business levers, critical parameters for success and business drivers. HR has to understand the discontinuities which may be required for sustenance and growth. This is the top most requirement on which HR professionals spend time, because it requires continuous analysis and updation of current business realities and future requirements. HR plans which are based on business imperatives are easy to implement as they have greater buy-in of the organization.

Secondly, HR should ensure right mix of talent for current and future needs of the organization. Anything and everything that influences acquisition and retention of talent should be on HR’s radar. Developing a decision matrix for identification of right talent for entry into the organization to manning critical positions, developing a simple yet robust process for enhancing individual and organizational capability and running it with precision of machines, is going to be the key differentiator for an organization. HR has to play this role. It has to bring in the right mix of science and art in decision making. HR professionals should spend time in understanding and creating such matrices.

Equipped with strategies aligned to business requirements and with the right mix of talent and capability building agenda, HR must develop plans to enrol and align the organization to business objectives. People processes have to be continuously revamped to align to the current and future requirements. A deep understanding of the needs of the external and internal community, people & organizational behavior, and individual & team requirements is essential for HR professionals to develop appropriate people processes and systems. This is where they should spend time in order to develop themselves.

Another important area for HR to focus on is “enabling technologies”, which helps in reducing costs, enhancing speed and accuracy of execution and supports self service for better satisfaction. What are these technologies and how can they be leveraged for business benefit, should be understood by HR professionals and experimented with.

There is no merit in spending time on transactional activities which can be better managed by experts who can handle it for multiple organizations, thus aggregating it for cost benefits. Payroll processing, maintenance of establishment, simple compliances and routine activities which do not require human interaction are better handled by such experts outside the organization.

HR should also not waste time in cleaning the mess created by someone else and play the role of a maid who is busy pacifying a crying child while the bread earner spends a few minutes to play with the child who is not crying. Ownership should be clearly defined and practiced by HR professionals.