When the word HR strikes in mind, the Non-HR professionals imagine a person holding an HR job having the attributes of good Interpersonal Skills. But the question to ask is that are the interpersonal skills the only requisite quality of an HR manager? The answer is no – It’s time to think beyond the importance of listening and communicating. HR Professionals now have to be updated with functioning of all Departments and changing Dynamics of External world (Competitors) and having Integrated approach.
Most of the HR professionals are busy in making policies, guidelines and roadmaps but very few look after how much their white paper work actually reaches the employee and is implemented; this should become the prime concern now. Everyone in HR is talking about how to create enthusiasm among employees so that they are self-motivated in working and they take their job itself as motivating factor but how to evaluate the implementation of HR policies. Can the HR policies be valued in monetary terms, can they be considered as one of the factors of ROI?
How to make HR department more effective? An Organization has to give a greater autonomy to HR executives in terms of Budget allocations. HR Professionals should give major chunk of their time in strategic planning and once it is done effectively its implementation and desired deliverables are easy to obtain. The strategies should be written in simple language and should be percolated down the line of hierarchy. There should be a mechanism to gauge whether the implemented HR compliances are effective and efficient or not. For e.g. nowadays, there is an emerging concept of quality circles in HR Domain but does the company monitors its effective implementation and desired outcome? Does the company train its employees by conducting workshops about its usefulness? These are some of the primary concerns for today’s HR professionals.
Strategic alignment– We listen to these jargons everywhere including this article but more importantly the question that we need to ask ourselves is how to make HR Strategies aligned? One of the solutions for this can be integrating all stakeholders be it is logistics or customers and giving them credibility with some kind of rewards and recognition to make them realize their importance. This would bring a sense of belongingness. Activities or Policies which bring sense of ownership would be more advantageous. It can be broadly done in two ways. Firstly, by making internal stakeholderssatisfied with their job and including them or consulting them in major decisions of company. Sharing Profit & loss, achievements, and growth of the company could be another way to include them. The Employee stock option plan (ESOP) has become a successful tool and many FMCG and Banking Sector companies have included it too. Secondly, by creating external stakeholders satisfied with products and services and making them believe that they are an important part of company. Products and services part can be looked after by the manufacturing, operations and marketing teams but making them realize their importance to the organization is the job of a Human Resource Manager. For e.g. conducting seminars and conferences by making stakeholders an integral part and honouring those for companies’ status will make them feel important and this would help in making stronger networking between organizations and external stakeholders.
Another area to make HR more effective is by encompassing cloud computing. Cloud Computing Technology can be administered in Multi-National Companies (MNC’s) because it is easier to monitor and regulate the cross country work force with the help of cloud computing .The benefits are enormous as it will help in cost cutting, is more convenient and can be done any time in cases where the cross country teams have to meet physically, however, it should not be forgotten that some discussions have to be carried out physically for the effectiveness of a meeting. Following are the trending practices in Agile Organization and Change Management: An HR should be very fast in gauging changing business environment and accordingly bringing the change in working system of their organization because in this era if the organization is not in congruence with changing environment then it signals the death of the organization. So to have change management, a company should follow Agile Organization practice which says, “It is applied to an organization that has created the processes, tools, and training to enable it to respond quickly to customer needs and market changes while still controlling costs and quality.” The change management concept can only be realized in company when it is well understood by people who would be impacted by this change and so to practice change management first thing is to spread the awareness of the same among the employees and help them understand its need in the sustainability of the company.
Giving autonomy and empowering employees with decision making is also very essential as it would help in faster decision making. Wherever possible, organizations should practice flat structure in decision making.
You must be thinking how cloud computing, change management and Agile organization are interlinked. This is the rationale behind the points I have made. An HR cannot work in isolation. She/he has to bring change themselves by interlinking the Modern practices with traditional practices and the role of HR job.
[The article has been written by Pragya Priyadarshini. She is presently pursuing her MBA in HR from IIM Ranchi.]
[The article has been written by Pragya Priyadarshini. She is presently pursuing her MBA in HR from IIM Ranchi.]
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