Response to “Picking over the Human Remains, a resource that business could let go”, Times, October 5 2009

I’m sure many human resources and training professionals were surprised and dissapointed to read this article in such a highly respected British newspaper. For those of you who didn’t read the article, the final paragraph will probably give you the gist of what the rest of the article contains. The journalist, Sathnam Sanghera, writes:

“Get rid of 90% of HR policies, 90% of HR people and then wash your hands of it”.

Click on the link below to read the whole article:
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/columnists/article6860903.ece

Mr Sanghera clearly wanted to incite controversy and change, which he has dountless done in many HR and training and development circles, but perhaps there is learning in all this…and let’s face it, he is not the first journalist who has launched a stinging attack on the state of our profession.

Perhaps we should stop spending so much time defending our profession and ask some fundamental questions about how we can best create the most value for our organisation. For a long time, I have maintained that HR needs to move beyond pushing out and enforcing endless “one size fits all” policies and procedures designed to codify and control employee behaviour and performance. Rather, it needs to balance a healthy and sensible approach to policy and process design and implementation with a focus on strengthening relationships and performance through enabling the strengths of individuals, teams and the organiation as a whole. Allowing people to bring more of themselves to work each day will liberate positive energy, discretionary effort and improved performance. This should, after all, be the “holy grail” of human resources and training wanting to contribute measurable value to their organisation.

Recent research by Titan Talent involving some 25 organisations from the public and private sector found that over 75% of respondents feel that the biggest opportunity for HR to contribute greater value to the business is by enabling the productive use of individual, team and organisational strengths. However, only one third say that are finding time to do this in practice because they are spending the bulk of their time fighting fires and dealing with problem employees. So what needs to change? According to respondents, a variety of factors, including senior/top management mindset, the culture of the organisation, traditional approaches to job design and competency application and the willingness to move away from well established approaches and processes.

However, questioning current assumptions and beiefs about how to manage and get the best out of people is not sufficient. We also need the the courage and confidence to engage top management and help them face up to some fundamental truths and realities reequired to achieve a highly engaged and productive workforce. Through leading by example, creating tough debates at the most senior levels in the organisation and introducing strengths-based approaches, we are likely to create significantly more value for our organisations and stakeholders and break free from the pointless defensive patterns many of us now find ourselves in. Let’s give Mr Sathnam something more positive to write about, including some real HR success stories.