Em-power-ment or power play?

Erik Luts

8 June 2011

Em-power-ment or power play?

Does HR really empower

management ?

What managers

expected yesterday

What managers expect

today

Support

Payroll, administration, headcount,cost

control, social relations, legal,

recruitment ...

Add value

Talent management, competitive

rewarding, training and development,

knowledge management, change ...

Empowerment

Speak their language, transfer know

how, think together, solve needs,

support (strategic) plans ...

STRATEGIC PARTNER

Management of strategic

human resources

CHANGE AGENT

Management of transformation

and change

EMPLOYEE CHAMPION

Management of employee

contribution

ADMINISTRATIVE EXPERT

Management of organisations

infrastructure

Future – strategic focus

Day by day operations focus

Processes People

What really excites

managers

HR as empowerment means: “think, work, act ...” together.

HR empowering management requires a mind shift.

Key question:

How much do we really contribute to

our colleagues’ plans, needs, burdens

… ???

Business is in the driving seat

• trust their decision making capabilities !

• align with the kind of business (markets …). Allow

different approaches.

• avoid rules – use benchmarks, frameworks …

HR is a service provider

• focus on output - quality

• ease of use – face validity

• use business concepts

How to sell PM, if we are not convinced ourselves ?

Skilled and professional

Motivated

Result driven

Team oriented

Aligned with strategy

Open and responsive

What managers expect from their staff

Hiring, training, change, recognition, salary

systems, teambuilding, appraisal systems,

talent management, culture programs,

leadership, firing, social relations, legal,

benefits, management information ...

What HR offers to enhance performance

PM is an ongoing process.

Self-assessment and

third party feedback

1/12 15/12

Evaluation, reward &

promotion proposals

and calibration

31/01

Performance review

interviews

31/03

Salary

decisions

Career

decisions

09/04 07/05

Talent review

Output

Potential

Solid performers

Low performers

Key figures

Growing HR-MIS

Development decisions:

What is expected (knowledge, skills, attitude …) ?

Do people match / gap ?

How can we support ?

training

coaching

change program

recruit / move

Contributes to goals

Fits to culture

Business goals and

values

Fit to job requirements

Company wide

competence model

Career decisions Salary decisions

Career decisions: HR provides relevant information

(assessments, benchmarks …).

Management decides about job level and growth.

BASE SALARY

Market as a reference:, HR provides relevant

building blocks (expert, commercial results, team,

…). VARIABLE SALARY

Does the HR business partner model work.

… value is defined by the recievers of HR work

When others receive value from HR work, HR will be credible,

respected and influential! (Ulrich)

HR as the spider in the web? Communicate!

Align with your customer

• listen – understand

• use business language

• promote, entertain

• explain – convince

• find common points of interest

• adapt to needs and ambitions

• be open and transparent

• engage

• trust

• ...

By doing so we get refreshing ideas:

• being more responsive (e.g. company cars)

• being more creative (e.g. recognition program)

• integrating in business as usual (e.g. financial framework)

• contributing to bottom line (e.g. cost saving plan)

• ...

How does this contribute to

performance management ?

• understand better, advice better ...

• build up credibility

• receive useful feedback

• are able to explain

• connect – receive support

Gaining credibility ... How to build our HR force ?

HR-actions embedded in business strategy, will be highly effective ... and welcome!

Align with strategic plans

• not “one size fits all”

• seek sponsorship

• align to objectives

• deliver – time to market

• learn to say “yes”

• develop consultancy skills

• don’t preach, don’t teach

• ...

In practice

• HR-business plans

• HR-business partners

• Delivery centres

Planned and agreed

activity on

• developing and training

• recruiting

• reward strategy

• knowledge management

• change and transformation

HR - calendar

YES WE CAN !

Do you think we can convince management to:

• review > 200 functions ?

• train 800 branch managers in HR skills ?

• evaluate and reallocate 6000 people ?

• invest 50.000 days in training effort ?

• review appraisal and salary systems ?

Did we focus too much on the system ... ?

If HR managers would consequently “eat their own dog food” …

HR is an enabler – not a disabler

• HR systems must contribute to business success

• Systems must not be a burden – ease of use

• Support decision making – avoid rules

• Train, take time for change

• Take customers perspective

Biggest challenge: trust and creativity

• Management can decide – large degrees of freedom

• Models adapted to markets and specialisations

• Management is / acts responsible for HR development

• HR advises, provides solutions

• HR systems as competitive advantage

Empowering management without loosing consistency.

• HR must balance between stakeholders. Giving degrees of freedom to management

always bounces on limitations.

• Managers are not HR –experts. What about best practices?

• What about cost control?

How do other “internal service providers” deal with this?

• Provide “frameworks” and policies.

• Use peer discussions and benchmarks.

• Learn from other departments (e.g. audit, ...).

• Integrate with other company processes (finance ...).

• Learn from other delivery models (consultants ...).

• Do not neglect “basic sanity” tasks.

• Engage yourself.

HR is a catalyst, not a key ingredient ... but essential to enhance the chemistry.

ARE WE READY TO SERVE ?