Want To Be a Great HR Person?
Here’s my fourth post live from the Advanced Human Resource Executive Program at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.
Want to be a great HR person? Here are the top 10 things you should do right now, according to some of the world’s top HR execs:
- Stay close to customers and key stakeholders
- Understand the business, industry and key competitors
- Challenge the status quo and drive change
- Design and apply the right metrics
- Drive, create and sustain culture
- Provide HR tools and systems for effective people management
- Focus on the company’s wealth creators and key strategic positions
- Be accountable for overall workforce development
- Develop the company’s strategic capabilities
- Reward the right behaviors
Those same HR execs were then asked to score themselves on how well they do each of the above. The bad news? The average score was an “F” (46/100). The good news? There’s lots of room for improvement.
The general consensus was that HR has an inside/outside problem — too much internal navel-gazing and not enough focus on external customer, competitor, business issues.
Don’t let that happen to you. Rate your company on a 1-10 scale in each of the above categories and then take action to shift the focus to a more strategic, customer-focused orientation. If HR practices are truly aligned with what the customer needs, you’ll have happier customers, happier employees and lots more money.
July 20th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
Mark, this was an excellent post.
In my case, I’ve made a career in HR out of being able to build relationships. Whether I walk in to a room not knowing anyone in it or whether I am somewhere where I know everyone, I have the unique ability to be able to relate to my audience. It’s saved me in more than one employment investigation instance, because people felt comfortable to talk to me.
Anyway, I plan and look forward to being a regular visitor and commenter on your site. Thanks.