High-performance Workforce

Recently, there’s been some chatter about the death of HR.

It may be a bit premature…

Much like the old man, HR isn’t dead yet. But it is being pushed inevitably along in new directions as technology replaces bureaucracy in organizations. In the world of wikis, web sites, and stored soft documents, this isn’t a large surprise – it has been coming for quite some time, and it is up to HR professionals to demonstrate value beyond those functions that can be performed by software.

I agree with Lance, that HR seems increasingly likely to be devolved from a stand-alone, overhead department to a more operational role withing an organization, much like the role that financial analysts play in some organizations. Lance includes these roles:

1. Workplace Process and Productivity Expert
2. Functional and Effective Internal Ombudsman
3. Employee Life Cycle Manager

I would add a few more features to these for high-performance organizations:

A. Personnel Selection expert: Industrial/Organizational psychologists know that selecting individuals via interviews is typically a flawed process. There are many reasons why high-performance organizations would benefit from using modern selection techniques. Lance included a Life Cycle Manager, to which I would add personnel selection responsibilities, including job analysis, selection test creation, and vendor relationships who specialize in those areas.

B. Training expert: Adult learning and increasing individual performance via training plays a large role in some organization, most notably in technical sales organizations. This role wasn’t explicitly included in Lance’s #1, but it very well might be there.

C. Performance Management expert: Managers often don’t know how to effectively give feedback nor how to spur performance improvement in their employees. This may also be another aspect of Lance’s #1.

D. Cultural/engagement expert: As much time and energy as organizations spend discussing their culture and the culture they want to have, it seems to me that having someone actually measure organizational culture and feed findings back to organizational leaders would be of value. Additionally, because engagement has become so highly valued by managers and consultants of late, this is another part of organizational life which could be measured and the results provided to organizational leaders.

In conclusion, it seems to me that specialty personnel experts located within operational organizations might be the wave of the future. Trusted and frequently consulted outside experts may also fulfill the role that is currently an overhead function. HR departments seem to be losing their importance (if they ever were that important) as more HR functions are outsourced or computerized. It has always been difficult to make ROI arguments for HR roles, as they were often cost centers. However, I firmly believe that while HR as a department may go, the remaining strategic roles I discussed here will become more important than ever for high-performance organizations.

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With regard to the drought in my posting lately, I’m not dead yet! I have moved and have been preparing for the arrival of our first child in February, so you’ll have to forgive me for letting the dry spell go on for so long. I plan to get back in the saddle and stay there for quite some time.