Getting managers to manage HR!
August 29, 2008
I’ve just read about yet another piece of research that goes to show the importance of the role of managers in the implementation of human resources policy and practice. As we in HR all know, any initiatives, policies or procedures that are created by HR teams are pointless without being executed properly, which means that people managers within the company need to understand and live the HR strategy throughout every day.
In this example, a ‘talent survey’ carried out by the consultancy Hewitt Associates found that although talent management had become a top priority in 88 per cent of the 240 companies surveyed, this was not being carried forward because managers either didn’t have the time (84 per cent) or the skills (60 per cent) to manage talent within their teams. Nick Warren from Hewitt said:
“we have seen a renewed interest in talent management as companies seek to secure competitive advantage. But companies and HR departments need to work much harder on implementation”
This could be said for many areas of HR management, with senior management approaching their HR teams to come up with new ways of increasing the value of the human resource of the company, but then not allowing the benefit of these initiatives to be realised because the time and effort required to make them work is not forthcoming. My theory on the reason for this problem is that too many managers still spend too much of their time ‘doing’ rather than ‘managing’. This is a very difficult habit to break and means that managers are always too busy to be fulfilling the most important needs in their role: to get the best out of the resources available to them through effective planning, delegation, reviewing, communicating and thinking. HR professionals have a difficult job in assisting managers in this change by helping them to let go of the every day ‘doing’ and adapting to the new skills needed to manage. If you’re not thinking about this on a constant basis, then any new initiatives or strategies, such as how to manage talent, will go no further than the end of your desk.
What do you think about this? Do you have similar experiences with managers in your organisation?
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