empowering hr-the key to strategically simplifying hr processes

WHITE PAPER | EMPOWERING YOUR HR DEPARTMENT

© 2014 TALENTWISE, INC. 1.877.893.1665 / [email protected] / TALENTWISE.COM 1

But this doesn’t mean human resources doesn’t need to evolve with the business world. In order to meet the increasing demands in the workplace, human resources must become less cumbersome and more strategic about how they spend their time.

Human resources must become more empowered.

We’re not talking about 1990’s “empowerment,” where customer service representatives were authorized to write off a $5 Snickers bar from the hotel mini-bar when the customer was spending $1,000 for a business trip. That empowerment was nothing more than enabling good customer service decisions.

The empowerment we’re talking about helps individuals and organizations achieve their greatest potential. It impacts the bottom line. And human resources plays a huge role in making it happen.

Let’s be clear. The human resources function isn’t going away. Human resources departments play a valuable, difficult role in organizations, balancing the needs of the business and the needs of employees.

When I first started in human resources, someone told me the role of HR was to “hire, fire, and keep the beer cold at the company picnic.” No joke. Since then, I’ve developed a better description: Human resources is the architect of work.

Architects are responsible for creating safe, functional, aesthetically pleasing structures. They accomplish their work by designing and then communicating that design to clients, builders and others.

Similarly, human resources professionals are responsible for creating work that is safe, meets a need within the operation, and that people want to apply for.

And just as building design changes or buildings need renovations, so do workplaces. Business and the work environment is changing at a rapid pace. Organizations need to keep current with technology. During the Great Recession, human resources departments saw their budgets slashed and resources tightened. Today, HR is being asked to not only catch up, but excel.

The only way for human resources to get ahead is to strategically position itself to help their organizations succeed.

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, empowerment means “to promote the self-actualization of.” Self-actualization, according to Abraham Maslow, is our desire to achieve our greatest potential. This applies to both our personal and professional lives.

In the context of work, empowerment is about helping individuals achieve their greatest potential. Because when that happens, companies will achieve their greatest potential.

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EMPOWERING HR: THE KEY TO STRATEGICALLY SIMPLIFYING HUMAN RESOURCES PROCESSES

1 Source: Aberdeen Group, 2013

The Role of Human Resources

Empowerment: Defined

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Before you can start building an empowered human resources department, it’s important to establish what kind of impact you’re trying to create. We talked about empowerment helping employees and organizations reach their greatest potential. What does that look like?

Some of the answers might already be defined in the organizational mission or vision. For example, if the company’s mission statement is “To attain profitable growth through best-in-class customer service, innovation, product quality and employee commitment,” then we know that our empowerment efforts must:

• Help the organization grow profits

• Give customers outstanding service

• Provide opportunities to innovate

• Maintain high levels of product quality

• Engage and retain employees

From here, we can further define each component. For instance, let’s use the bullet “engage and retain employees.” Being empowered means helping employees achieve their greatest potential so they will stay with the company. This happens on several levels.

One way to help employees realize their greatest potential is to ask them to answer two questions. This can be done as a professional development activity.

Asking employees to reflect upon these times in their careers will help them to understand what it takes to become their most productive and achieve their greatest potential. Ultimately, they need to share that information with their manager.

The role of the manager is to coach employees and help them achieve their greatest potential. Managers cannot effectively coach if they don’t know the outcomes they’re trying to achieve. They also cannot effectively coach without the right tools. Managers should be trained to be workplace performance coaches, working with employees so they can succeed.

This leads to human resources. If HR spent the majority of their time focused on making managers workplace performance coaches, then they would be helping the company achieve its mission. A mission that, by definition, allows the company to be at its greatest potential.

Think of a time in your work life when you felt productive, healthy, successful and happy. What was happening at that time? Describe in detail the specifics of the situation, how you felt in that situation, how you felt about yourself and how you behaved.

Think of a time in your work life when you didn’t feel productive, healthy, successful or happy. What was happening at that time? Describe in some detail the specifics of the situation, how you felt in that situation, how you felt about yourself and how you behaved.

The role of the manager is to coach employees and help them achieve their greatest potential. Managers cannot effectively coach if they don’t know the outcomes they’re trying to achieve. They also cannot effectively coach without the right tools. Managers should be trained to be workplace performance coaches, working with employees so they can succeed.

The Impact of Empowerment on the Organization

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Any organization that wants to operate at its greatest potential needs a human resources department that functions at a high level. The role of human resources touches the operation in several places.

This is a candidate’s first impression of the organization. Traditionally, human resources has a direct impact in developing the company’s recruiting strategy, designing the candidate experience and creating the onboarding process. Successful recruiting and onboarding programs are a partnership between human resources and operational departments.

Empowered human resources departments work with their internal client groups to understand their needs and develop a process that will help the organization attract and retain the best talent. Within appropriate time frames. Within budget. Human resources helps the recruiting process work faster, more effectively and with increased efficiency.

The organization is able to grow the business as long as employees are able to grow their capabilities. Today’s business world is moving quickly. Fall behind and you can be left behind. Investing in employee training is critical to staying current with customer needs and business trends.

Human resources is empowered to assess, design and deliver performance solutions. As the organization identifies gaps between where the business is and where it wants to be, human resources must identify the most cost-effective methods to deliver training and learning opportunities. Then, it must work with internal and external subject matter experts (SMEs) to design quality content for those programs.

Everyone wants to be recognized for their contributions to the team. With social media and mobile devices, the methods that can be used for recognition have grown exponentially. Smart organizations realize that hard work must be celebrated.

Managers must be trained on the different opportunities to reward and recognize behavior. They must also be trained in the proven methods to improve or correct performance. Human resources is a go-to resource for managers when it comes to coaching and correcting employee performance. Organizations that want to work at their highest potential realize the need to make adjustments along the way. And they have the tools and resources available for managers to use.

Companies that want to excel have a plan for the future where talent is concerned. They realize an employee’s career plans change. People resign (for lots of reasons that have nothing to do with the company). While the entire company gets involved in the process of career development, replacement planning and succession planning, someone has to manage the process. That someone is usually human resources.

Empowering human resources in this area tells everyone that the future of the company is important. Employees understand the company wants to be prepared for the future by investing in their talent. It also sends the message that employees should think about where they want to be five or ten years from now and what resources they need to achieve that future goal.

What an Empowered HR Department Looks Like

Empowering human resources in this area tells everyone that the future of the company is important. Employees understand the company wants to be prepared for the future by investing in their talent.

Recruiting and Onboarding

Career Development and Succession Planning

Empowerment and HR Technology

Performance and Learning

Rewards and Recognition

All of the areas mentioned above lead toward technology. Human resources departments cannot possibly keep up without leveraging technology. It creates consistency. It gives human resources the ability to focus their work on those tasks that must be done person-to-person, allowing technology to do what it does best. Technology provides scalability, giving companies the ability to allocate resources in directions that make them their most productive.




Moving human resources toward empowerment takes a dedicated effort and the buy-in of senior leadership. Before proposing any changes, conduct an assessment of the current human resources environment. Talk to stakeholders about what they see as the department’s strengths and opportunities. Find out what they’re looking for in terms of human resources support. Then determine what empowered human resources will look like within the organization.

Once you’ve identified where you are right now and where you’d like to be in the future, a plan for bridging the gap can be created. The plan should include detailed goals assigned to specific individuals, with measurable outcomes and a timetable for completion.

When developing the plan, don’t be afraid to venture outside of corporate culture norms. To use a well-worn cliché, think outside the box. Transforming to an empowered human resources department involves a certain amount of risk. It can be a calculated risk…but a risk nonetheless.

Even after the plan is approved and the transition begins, the process will not always be smooth. That’s to be expected. Whenever we’re trying to make change happen, it’s clunky at first. As we do more, we become skillful, which develops an empowered human resources department.

The profession is constantly growing and changing. To truly become our most productive, we have to learn new things continuously. As the business world around us changes, an empowered human resources department will change along with it. Empowerment will always be about becoming our most productive. But the definition of “most productive” will be a sign of the times.

In order for the empowerment of human resources to make a true impact on the organization, there must be agreement at every level on what the definition of “most productive” looks like. Otherwise, the company will not know how to properly measure its efforts.

There are two ways to measure the impact of empowerment: quantitatively and qualitatively.

Quantatively refers to using metrics, analytics and data to measure outcomes. Examples of metrics that could help measure the effectiveness in your empowerment efforts include:

Calculating the numbers is a valuable exercise that provides an effectiveness measurement. Organizations compare their metrics prior to any empowerment effort with the numbers after implementation.

METRICS DASHBOARD – Human resources needs to know how they are performing, particularly in areas like recruiting. How many days does it take to fill a job opening? On an average, how many candidates do you have to interview before extending an offer of employment? What is the cost to hire (and terminate) someone?

TREND ANALYSIS – Once you have some basic metrics, you can start to watch for trends. Does turnover increase or decrease at certain times of the year or does it remain fairly consistent? Are there specific grievances that continue to surface?

BENCHMARKING – This ties into metrics and trends. Once you have numbers about your performance, those can be compared to your competitive set, industry, and even geography. It will provide a snapshot of your performance compared to everyone else.

Developing an Empowered Human resources Department Measuring and Evaluating Success

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Qualitative measurement uses comments, either verbal or descriptive, to provide feeback. Methods you can us to collect qualitative feedback are:

Today’s fast-paced, technology-driven business world requires human resources to step up their game. The way companies achieve their greatest potential is with a human resources department that’s operating at its greatest potential.

Human resources is positioned well as a key contributor to the business and the champion of empowerment. By helping the organization achieve its greatest potential, it’s contributing to the bottom line.

While we often talk about the importance of “the numbers,” both types of measurements are necessary. They each provide a unique perspective. Together, they give organizations a realistic view of their success as well as provide opportunities for the future.INDIVIDUAL MEETINGS – Anecdotal

information has value. Stories and sound bites provide context. They are memorable and shareable. Every successful organization has stories. They tell them during interviews, orientation, performance conversions, etc.

SURVEYS – These can provide both quantitative and qualitative information. Organizatons can survey new hires about the recruiting process. They can survey employees about the effectiveness of onboarding. And of course, surveys can be conducted to determine employee engagement and satisfaction.

FOCUS GROUPS – Another way to capture feedback is via focus groups. Internal focus groups can help define training initiatives, identify employer branding elements, and determine organizational weaknesses. The focus group format allows for a deeper exploration of comments.

Summary: The Future of Human Resources





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EMPOWER YOUR HR DEPARTMENT



© 2014 TALENTWISE, INC. 1.877.893.1665 / [email protected] / TALENTWISE.COM 6CONNECT WITH TALENTWISE

ABOUT TALENTWISETalentWise is a technology company that has completely transformed one of the most critical tasks that every company depends upon for success – hiring new employees. TalentWise automates the hiring process from start to finish with compliance built in, allowing HR to manage offer letters, screening and onboarding activities with just a single solution.

TalentWise Hire has simplified the hiring process, from the time HR offers a candidate a position to a new hire’s first day on the job. HR can manage hiring tasks electronically, including offer letters, background checks, drug screening, E-Verify, new hire forms including I-9, W-4 and more. The result is an efficient and compliant hiring process that delivers a great experience for HR professionals and candidates alike. It’s delivered via software as a service (SaaS) so it’s available online, anytime and anywhere there’s an Internet connection.

Sharlyn Lauby is author of the HR Bartender blog and president of ITM Group Inc., a South Florida-based training and human resources consulting firm. Her company focuses on providing solutions to engage and retain employee talent so their clients can innovate and create shareholder value. Prior to starting ITM Group, Sharlyn was vice president of human resources one of the world’s largest organizational consulting firms. She has designed and implemented highly successful programs for employee retention, internal and external customer satisfaction and leadership development.

To learn more Sharlyn and ITM Group, please visit her website (itmgroupinc.com) or her blog (hrbartender.com). You can also contact her via phone (954.659.2237) or email ([email protected]).

ABOUT SHARLYN LAUBY, SPHR, CPLP


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