Our experience of working with both large corporations and small
entrepreneurial/emerging companies is that most senior executives dismiss
the contribution made by the HR department. They are looked at as a
necessary evil. In a few exceptions, the HR department is a valued,
integral part of the organization.
Our perceptions are from the feedback and comments we get from HR
managers. These comments include: indictments of HR being a policeman,
saying no all the time, being reactive and unresponsive, not contributing
to the business operations, taking orders vs. proactively solving issues,
lacking insight about the business.
The perception of the HR department will change when the HR people who are
working directly with the managers in a business move from being order
takers and administrative gatekeepers to proactive business partners
solving business issues.
I will share a small example of how this might work, but at the expense of
a self-serving plug for my business (I apologize for it upfront).
We offer a windows-based expert system to help hiring managers develop
performance-based job specs, customize interviews based on those job
specs, and an evaluation system to measure the ability of the candidate to
achieve those expectations. When HR organizations start embracing our
approach to measuring candidates, the client managers no longer view HR as
a bunch of order takers (the historical perspective is "here is a list of
skills/attributes -- go find someone who has these), they view HR as
having the capability to enter into a discussion of the strategic
goals/objectives of the company and department, and how those objectives
relate to a single person (i.e., a hire or promotion). The HR person has
the ability now to enter into a strategic discussion with the hiring
manager vs. a tactical adminstrative process oriented discussion.
Regards,
-- Barry Deutsch The Adler Group Staffing Strategies and The Managers' Edge Seminar Programs World Class Staffing Software for Hiring Managers Performance-based Executive Search E-mail address: barryd@earthlink.net/Compuserve support in MBAWARE Forum Telephone: (310) 378-4571/Fax: (310) 791-4433