Canadian HR Reporter is the national journal of human resource management. It features the latest workplace news, HR best practices, employment law commentary and tools and tips for employers to get the most out of their workforce.
Issue link: https://digital.hrreporter.com/i/492610
STRATEGIC CAPABILITY NETWORK'S PANEL of thought leaders brings decades of experience from the senior ranks of Canada's business community. eir commentary puts HR management issues into context and looks at the practical implications of proposals and policies. CANADIAN HR REPORTER April 20, 2015 EXECUTIVE SERIES 9 www.scnetwork.ca Join our professional community of Canadian HR & Organizational Leaders: • Connecting @ monthly events • Collaborating with peers • Challenging conventional thinking The Power of Human Capital CULTIVATING LEADERSHIP FOR 35 YEARS Great Leaders GROW www.scnetwork.ca Are you looking to reach occupational health and safety professionals across the country? Get your listing in the Health and Safety section of HR Vendors Guide online and in print. Visit www.hrreporter.com/hr-vendors-guide to enter your firm's information. Visit www.hrreporter.com/hr-vendors-guide HR VENDORS GUIDE HR VENDORS GUIDE Attention OHS vendors and suppliers Treating everyone as individual contributors For any organization aspiring to achieve a best business strategy for growth, is it not in HR's best interest to ensure the best talent are placed in key roles? However, Michael Couch reasons this may not be so. He suggests HR is not necessarily: determining key or "pivotal" roles; effectively verifying best talent; and aligning talent with business strategy. Could it be that in the call for HR to transform itself, there has been an overemphasis on systems and processes? Is it possible the HR function in strategic work- force planning has become an exercise in defining resource re- quirements based on yesterday's data, maintaining all-purpose job descriptions, processing stan- dardized performance manage- ment systems and administering normal distribution compensa- tion models? Has the drive toward reducing costs and improving operational effectiveness through HR system and process improve- ments missed the quintessential dynamics behind enhancing busi- ness strategy? e consistent message from experts such as Huselid, Becker and Beatty, Boudreau and Urlich is that executing HR strategies "the way we've always done it" is just not sufficient for today's complex- ity. Similarly, Josh Bersin of Bersin by Deloitte questions whether HR is spending too much time man- aging predetermined succession plans and short-range job descrip- tions with conventional job evalu- ation processes and uniform per- formance management practices. Additional food for thought can be found in the 2015 Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends 2015 study, which involved more than 3,000 respondents from more than 100 countries. It found 80 per cent of companies believe HR skills remain a challenge and 39 per cent rate this problem as urgent. A critical premise in Huselid, Becker & Beatty's Differentiated Workforce concept is the need to stop treating every employee the same and start valuing his individ- ual contribution and talents. is hypothesis is reinforced by Ernest O'Boyle and Herman Aguinis' extensive research, conducted across various industries and oc- cupational jobs (e Best and the Rest: Revisiting the Norm of Nor- mality of Individual Performance; Personnel Psychology). eir conclusions unquestion- ably undermine several tradi- tional human resource and core organizational behaviour prin- ciples. Moreover, they challenge existing selection, performance management, job classification, compensation policies and suc- cession planning practices. Unquestionably, HR practices are not only about filling organi- zational needs — they are about achieving business strategy with a talented, valued workforce. e question is "What is HR doing about it?" Despite Bersin cham- pioning the need for HR to "be bold," adopting a differentiated workforce may be a major chal- lenge for any leader, not just HR leaders. Redesigning talent manage- ment strategies to build a dif- ferentiated workforce is not the function of HR alone. To be truly effective, it needs a high level of collaboration and input, from the CEO to front-line managers. e challenge for HR will be in defin- ing a viable business case. Imagine the measurable differ- ence an organic, holistic and inte- grated talent management model that systematically complements your organization's business strat- egy, such as the differentiated workforce, could have on your organization's long-term growth and profitability. Trish Maguire is a commentator for SCNetwork on leadership in action and founding principal of Synergyx Solutions in Nobleton, Ont., focused on high-potential leadership develop- ment coaching. She has held senior leadership roles in HR and OD in education, manufacturing and entre- preneurial firms. She can be reached at synergyx@sympatico.ca. Trish Maguire Leadership In Action Strategically talented An organization, whether it's in the busi- ness of building houses or building smart- phone apps, running a transportation company or running a school board, must have clarity of purpose — a clear explana- tion of its value. To achieve this, it must have a solid strategy — a clear plan show- ing how it will achieve that value. In order to convincingly execute on this strategy, it must also have the right people. Michael Couch refines this last part even further by stating an or- ganization's most valuable asset is having "People with the right skills in the right roles doing the right things at the right cost." He also claims an organiza- tion's strategy is more valuable than its people because strategy is the framework that guides the choices that determine the nature and direction of the organization, including what kind of people are needed. Talent management has no value unless it drives strategy. So it's strategy first, people sec- ond. He calls this concept "Com- peting through people." Make sense? Of course it does, yet very few organizations are suc- cessful at achieving this. Why? Because we live in a different world now and organizations just haven't kept up with the times. Managers came into vogue back in the industrial era when managing a relatively steady-state environment, such as running a production line, was important — the Peter Drucker days. We have since transitioned into the much more dynamic, un- charted "knowledge" era where most industrial jobs have been either handed over to robots or outsourced to other countries. Flat organizational structures are replacing the outdated hierarchical model. Weekly "calibration" meet- ings are supplanting the traditional annual performance reviews. By asking the question "Where does our strategy require talent that will make us better than our competition?" organizations can hire talent that fits more suitably into their strategy, rather than into their culture. ey no longer need brawn; they need brains. Morgan Smyth Leadership in Action NURTURE > pg. 11