HR’s credibility in organisations (1)
January 16, 2009
I was just having a browse through People Management Magazine (15 Jan 09) and noticed an article on a recent piece of research that found that less than a quarter of line managers believe their HR function adds value to their organisation. The research, entitled Management Agenda 2009, carried out by The Roffey Park Institute, surveyed 1,050 managers and highlighted some disappointing results.
Only 11 per cent of managers surveyed thought that their HR function was customer focussed, and more than half said the department was reactive rather than proactive. Even more worryingly, 44 per cent of 200 HR Managers that were also surveyed felt that the function was not adding value!
This is something I have been thinking about a lot lately, and whilst I think that in my organisation the HR function does add value in many areas, we could definitely do this at a more strategic level. Being supportive and proactive on a day to day level, through supporting line managers in people management is one thing, but really contributing to organisational success through strategic thinking and organisational development is quite something else, and in my opinion, quite difficult to achieve, especially if, like me, you are quite newly qualified and not hugely experienced.
I think the starting point for increasing value adding activities and building stronger credibility within the organisation is communicating with relevant stakeholders on developments that are needed. This might be in the form of employee consultation – but real, valuable consultation. The staff surveys that sit on a shelf in HR and collect dust for years but are not acted upon are one of the biggest credibility-crushers for a HR team. We’ve not been that successful at getting a response to staff surveys in the past so this year we have introduced a face to face meeting in which the employee discusses their responses with a member of HR; we are carrying out annual appraisals so it is easy to slot in the consultation meeting at the end of the review, (of course it is probably only possible for HR to carry out all the consultation meetings in small companies). HR might also look at customer feedback as a starting point for their strategic plan, or the operational plans for each organisational function to see where HR can support and drive the objectives aimed at throughout the coming period.
… post continues tomorrow.
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