Human Resources has become a true business partner in organizations. As companies face a deluge of change, as a result of outside forces, news headlines, and advanced technology, they turn to HR for help becoming agile, adaptable, and accessible, first to recruits and employees and then to customers.
Transformation Director Ian Kirkpatrick recently sat for an interview with HR Exchange Network and shared his thoughts on the role HR plays today, how to shift the culture of an organization, and how to make diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) more accessible. Check out what Kirkpatrick had to say:
HREN: What can you say about the way people view HR today versus 10 or 20 years ago?
IK: The HR function has traditionally been known as a kind of policy procedure holder, sometimes even called a business blocker. From a board's perspective, any function has to show its value. Certainly, as a result of COVID, HR is beginning to be seen more as a team position on the board. And people are being seen as our biggest assets. A lot of companies say we're a people company, aren't we?
The truth is that the people can be our biggest asset, also our biggest risk and our biggest cost. Therefore, when you're managing an HR function, you have to be a business leader, who understands what a business is looking for and what a culture is looking for. CFOs and CEOs particularly want a return on that capital investment.
HREN: As a transformation expert, can you explain how HR can assert its power and have some effect over the culture and business outcomes?
IK: HR can really begin to show its true colors in saying, why don't we understand the true costs between our people, and how that affects our productivity and then that affects your profitability. In particular, [you will see this] where you have a high rate of attrition, or you have a culture where people are not respected. Therefore, they may leave regretted levers, they may be not productive, because they're not happy.
HREN: What do you think are some of the mistakes that HR makes when trying to align their talent management strategies with the business objectives?
IK: So there's an element of knowing your audience. And you might have ambitious people, who need nurturing and effective training and leadership skills. At the same time, you may just have people happy doing what they're doing. You must identify a talent pool that is right for the culture of the business and right for the strategy of the business to lead it forward. And that really comes into effective leadership training, and what leadership looks like, and sometimes leadership is difficult.
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I always say that a true leader has a stream of comfort blankets behind them because they have to take risks and have those difficult conversations. That's when HR has to really come into its own and say, ‘This is our goal as a business. This is what we need from our leaders in the business. And therefore we need to identify the talent, who can actually fill that and take it forward.’
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HREN: What are some examples from your work of aligning talent management with business outcomes and transforming culture?
IK: Okay, so in terms of culture transformation, it comes back to what your customer requires. If you're a retail business that needs a very careful front-of-house customer service, then you need to listen to the people who are delivering on that service. What makes their lives easier? You'd be surprised how little things make a big difference in making people more successful. By asking the question at every level, people may come out with some very surprising, simple fixes.
From that point of view, your talent side of it has to come, I believe, from a fountain-up, as well as a waterfall-down strategy. If we want to be the biggest in the world, where does that leave the person on the shop floor? How does that pay his bills? We want to be a part of that, and we want you to be a part of that. Let's engage your knowledge. Let's engage your ideas, so there's ownership there. One of the big things that I've experienced by doing that is you can you can stand up and say, these are your words, not ours, not the board’s. We put a structure around this of values and beliefs and behaviors that you asked for. Therefore, let's move this business forward, as a result of your words. And people feel part of the whole business.
HREN: Is there anything else you would like to add? What would you like to tell us about?
IK: Big agendas and big money are being plowed into DEI and ESG [environmental, social, governance standards]. But I'm challenging this and asking what does that actually mean? Is that a check box exercise? Or are you treating people with respect and dignity? That's where I'm coming from. With some of the training I'm doing in a difficult moment, if we treat people with dignity or respect, here's the commercial risk of not doing that. That tends to get CFO’s attention. Here's the benefit of doing this. By doing a respectful, training program, then you will find people are more productive, you will find people stay with you for longer.
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