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.

High-performance workforces are characterized by these accomplishments:

1. Personnel are hired via a process that maximizes physical, intellectual, educational, and temperamental fit with the job and cultural fit the organization.
2. Employees are trained in order to maximize productivity, expand job responsibilities, increase workforce flexibility, increase promotion opportunities, and generate positive morale.
3. Training programs are evaluated to determine changes in learners and organizational payoffs.
4. Employee engagement is assessed and acted upon in order to maximize the attainment of organizational goals.
5. Individual performance is frequently managed in order to maximize results, rather than to merely assign annual rewards or punishments.
6. Organizational culture is consciously designed in order to strengthen organizational capability to achieve organizational goals.

Building and maintaining any of the characteristics of a high-performance workforce requires managerial expertise, skills, tools, planning, and effort. Ultimately, the reason to go to the effort of building and maintaining a high-performance workforce is to create a sustainable competitive advantage. Often, building a high-performance workforce provides more opportunity to build competitive advantage than environmental opportunities. For instance, Porter, Harvard’s famed strategy guru, notes that industry profitability is shaped largely by forces outside of an organization’s control. Building competitive advantage through sound management techniques offers organizations the opportunity to build and maintain competitive advantage through internal discipline.

So, one of my goals for this blog is to provide managers with tools and thoughts about how building a high-performance workforce can benefit their organization. Another is to end the status of corporate HR as the Rodney (“I can’t get no respect”) Dangerfield of the executive level. Managers who build and maintain a high-performance workforce create sustainable competitive advantage for their organization. Building such a disciplined, highly-functioning organization simultaneously builds respect in the executive suite.