HR Can't do much ??

My thought on this article came from a very useful post I saw on John Ingham's blog here.
It quotes a number of studies and reports to show how Talent Management has shifted from the priorities of CEO. Its not a good news if you are a fan of HR fraternity like I am. I would like to take a different perspective on things.

Human Resource traditionally has been a function which has found difficult to quantify the value it adds to the business, as it deals with People. However enroute this journey of transformation from an administrative to a strategic talent driven function, there have been many changes in the role of HR , what it has been perceived as. HR from it side also tried to bring in concepts which could quantify or atleast give a sense of measurement to the whole thing.

However, with times changing and focus again on bringing down costs, HR has a tough time on hand. HR needs to proactively support business in such times, in not just diffusing crisis but also handling issues like Employee morale and productivity. It would also need to play a stronger role to align with business needs, and to do this HR would need to find people who really fit the culture, are able to scale up to business requirements, and for this to happen HR needs to know where the right people are, now this can't happen without information, and for that you need to invest in a system. Now who is talking about investments in such times?

Its a Paradox that HR would have to live with !!!
So does it mean HR would remain what it is ?
Not really, organizations that are thinking innovative are also able to bring about differential value in HR, more about it in my next blogs, stay tuned !!!

Social Vs Business Networking

With the recent downturn, employees across world are becoming insecure about their jobs, they are thronging networking sites and in the process, little known sites too have become popular, while taking users of sites like LinkedIn to a little over 35 million. Even Facebook, which was vastly recognised for its social networking has crossed 175 Million users. A trend reflected here
The big difference from the adoption of such sites last year compared to this year is that a large number of people who would want to connect earlier so as to spread their profile around have transformed to a community who would want to connect to be "visible" and "employable" at the sametime.
An interesting fact here is the fact that the difference between Social and Business Networking seems to be essentially blurring,forcing more and more users to adopt to networking of some sorts. However as most Anthropoligist would argue, its impossible to maintain more than 150 social relationships, while for a person on LinkedIn, inactive relationships seems plausible.
This is where the essential line is drawn, People invading Facebook for career opportunities, need to understand that while Facebook could be a medium of community for certain organizations, it largely remains a Social Networking site. At the sametime, a site like LinkedIn or Xing, promotes Business Networking and keeps social networkers at bay.
As the article quotes
It’s a safe bet that if the economic downturn grinds on, we will witness further conflict between the nonrational instinct to connect socially and the rational calculation to build social capital for professional reasons. If so, it may put further strain on the notion of an online friend. We may find ourselves asking more frequently that age-old question, “What are friends for?”
In such a scenario, it remains to be seen how Facebook transforms to manage both Social and Business Networking. !!!

Upgrading your talent

A McKinsey Quarterly article about how to manage talent in downturn here, points to an interesting case in point - Often the easiest is not the best.
The article talks about how organizations should carefully look at redesigning jobs and roles to effectively allow their employees not just to stay in the organization but also increase their productivity and improve their morale.
Its essential to see how most companies have reacted to the downturn, its not uncommon to see jobs being slashed in thousands. While its a knee jerk reaction, most would also point out, do they have an option ?
What happens to employees in these times, those who are shown the pink slip wonder whether its really their fault for what they are facing ? and those who escape it wonder, is that what they really are working so hard for ? Result - Loss of Morale, motivation, productivity and even Employer Brand.
Whats the difficult way out ? Look at redesigning jobs to get multiskilling and multitasking involved in these roles. What that would entail is a complete new set of jobs being designed keeping in mind the lean - mean organization thats required. That in turn could keep employees motivated and also help organization improve their brand image.
BUT a word of caution here, organizations need to carefully evaluate their needs to understand when is the best time for them to actually take such measures, also it requires HR to be in sync with business requirements.
So does System and processes have a role to play here ? A well aligned performance measurement system not only ensures that the right people are identified, but also creates a strong alignment to the organization goals, as also highlighted in the study.

Back to Blogging

I would like to place on record my sincere thanks and gratitude to the support that I got from everybody through messages, posts during this period. It certainly helped me get motivated enough to start blogging again.Though it did take a long time for me to start blogging again, I am glad I am back.
So here I am back to Blogging, and with a promise to bring you more and best of HR Bytes in the days to come.
Thanks again for all the support
Stay tuned for more !!!