REAL HR!

I have to thank Mr. Frank Roche for articulating what REAL HR is all about in his blog on KnowHR titled ”10 Tenets for The New HR“. 

For years, I have battled the stigma that is sometimes associated with being an “HR person”…mostly perpetuated by people whose negative opinions of HR are rooted back in the days of our ancestor “Personnel”, and by those who are too short-sighted to see HR as more than an administrative cost centre, the cry-baby room, or the rules police.  Ironically, and perhaps justly, leaders and organizations who view HR in this archaic way get just the value from the function that they deserve…zero!

On the other hand, the clients whom I partner with see the real value of HR as a trusted advisor and strategic partner in their business.  I know their business and my business is their success…and I make sure they know it.  I don’t waste my time (and my client’s money) creating paperwork for it’s own sake and baby-sitting immature employees or coddling incompetent managers.  Each and everything I do is tied somehow to my clients’ strategic business plan.   

This is how I have always viewed the role of HR, though until recently becoming a Consultant, I had precious few opportunities as an in-house resource to really strut my HR stuff…the REAL HR: Compensation Strategy, Employment Branding, Risk Mitigation, Restructuring, MA&D’s, oh! and here’s a good one: driving profitability!, to name a few. 

I keep thinking to myself, if an organization gets no value from its in-house HR; if HR spends the shareholders’ money on activities that do not contribute to their ROI, then why the heck is it still there?