- Charan Kamal Singh

MBA(HR)
Role of Human
Resource
Professionals in
Performance
Management

SEVEN SINS OF HR
PROFESSIONALS
SEVEN SINS OF HR PROFESSIONALS
The role of HR manager had changed from a personnel manager to
more strategic role.
The focus is now on Strategic Human Resource Management.
New-age HR professionals understand that they should play a key role
in the formulation and implementation of the competitive strategy of the
organizations.
Unfortunately, many of the personnel departments have been renamed
as HR department but professionals still prefer to view their roles and
contributions with old lenses.
One of the major reasons for doing so pertains to their ineffective
habits as years of grooming and socialization under the aegis of
personnel management.

SEVEN SINS OF HR PROFESSIONALS.......
Sin 1: Decision Making is Prerogative of CEO

HR professionals believe that decision making is the responsibility of
the CEO and they are merely facilitators.
This fact they proudly and publicly profess.
Reason very few HR professionals understand the business of their
organizations and tend to restrain them in the HR domain only without
making adequate references to the business strategy of the
organization.
On the other hand, line managers have not only understood the
business but have mastered HR skills.
Due to this, business heads have been playing the role of a technical
and human relations specialist, all rolled into one.

SEVEN SINS OF HR PROFESSIONALS.......
Sin 2: Tunnel Vision

HR professionals are under the impression that they are the best-
qualified people to take unmatched decisions on human resources.
They tend to send people on journeys they themselves have not
undertaken.
They would always be willing to force upon line managers pre-
packaged HR programmes, and whether the same meets either their
own or the organisational requirements is least of consequence to the
HR professionals.
Result - lesser involvement of HR professionals in many key business
and strategic plans of organisations, thereby restricting the periphery
of HR professionals in their own organisations.

SEVEN SINS OF HR PROFESSIONALS.......
Sin 3: Fault Finding

Whenever any HR plan or strategy goes wrong - HR professionals are the first
to put the blame on line management.
They would vehemently contend that in spite of their best intentions and
efforts, the HR plan or strategy simply failed because of non-cooperation and
lack of support of line managers.
If this argument fails, then they would say that HR can only be successful if,
and only if the top management is committed.
Does this mean that line managers or top management do not understand that
people are the prime source of competitive advantage?
They definitely understand this and that is the reason why HR professionals
exist in organizations.
It is the skill and responsibility of HR professionals to ensure the success of
HR plans and strategy in the same way that business managers make
business plans and strategies successful. Therefore, HR professionals need to
work more like business leaders than service providers..


SEVEN SINS OF HR PROFESSIONALS.......
Sin 4: Never Trust Anybody

HR professionals would always advice line managers about the need
of maintaining confidentiality.
In this knowledge age, information sharing is taking place all over the
organization and has become a necessity.
HR professionals should instead concentrate on their roles as
knowledge transfer agents, so that knowledge creation is not
restricted, but widely shared for the benefit of their organizations and
its customers.
Therefore, HR professionals need to create a culture of trust - where
social capital is fully harnessed and developed for sustaining
competitive edge of organizations.


SEVEN SINS OF HR PROFESSIONALS.......
Sin 5: Role Model

Very few HR professionals have found a role model in another HR
professional.
Most of the role model of HR professionals is either their CEO (mostly) or
some senior line manager. Does it imply that there is an intellectual bankruptcy
among HR professionals?
The fact is that very few HR professionals have reached to the top slot, and
there are not enough such top HR professionals in the industry. Nevertheless,
many of us spend more time in criticizing those who exist on the horizon,
rather than taking a cue from their good thoughts, actions, habits, attitude, and
skills.
However, there is nothing wrong in imitate our CEOs or senior line managers,
as long as we understand that we have to learn from them, copy their style up
to a point but then develop our own original style of business articulation and
mastery.
Therefore, HR professionals have to expand their mental horizon if they plan to
survive in the next century as well.




SEVEN SINS OF HR PROFESSIONALS.......
Sin 6: Not Cost-savvy

Today business landscape is marked with high productivity, better
quality, and low cost.
Most of HR professionals are not very cost conscious. They willingly
assume the role of cost container once thrust upon by their CEOs.
However, HR professionals tend to focus on cost saving in trivial
matters like cutting down tea/coffee consumption, mobile bills, etc.
Such cost cutting does not generate enough revenues but instead
impacts business negatively.
Cost cutting implies - controlling wastage, either of material, time, or
money, which HR professionals should note and implement.


SEVEN SINS OF HR PROFESSIONALS.......
Sin 7: Move Alone

Another sinful habit of HR professionals is that they tend to move
alone in the path of organizational success and growth.
They have over the years developed a well-oiled and maintained
parallel track. That is why HR profession is still a parallel function
which can be dispensed any time.
Eg. A software company in the US employing over 12,000 IT
professionals has no HR department.
This is simply because the line managers play that role very aptly.
Hence, unless HR professionals move along the main track, their role
and status shall remain at peripheral to the organisation existence.



Habits of Ineffective CEOs
Habit 1: Refrain from taking decisions
Ineffective CEOs either fail to take decision or take too long to decide.

Habit 2: Always right
Ineffective CEOs do not believe in participatory decision-making roles
of their managers and employees.

Habit 3: Knack for fault finding
Ineffective CEOs always look for finding faults in best work of their
managers and employees. Also, they tend to do more damage to
managers and employees self esteem in the name of 'honest'
feedback.

Source : Tapomoy Deb, May 2007, HRD Newsletter of National HRD Network.

Habits of Ineffective CEOs.............
Habit 4: Never trust anybody
Ineffective CEOs never trust anybody for fear of the unknown.

Habit 5: Role model
Ineffective CEOs are bone collectors, that is, they are poor in
identifying and nurturing competent people/talents.

Habit 6: Be penny wise, pound foolish
Ineffective CEOs tend focus on more trifle issues than concentrating
on core business problems.

Habit 7: Never move alone
Ineffective CEOs like to be followed by the whole group of managers to
register their authority and command.



Habits of Ineffective CEOs.............
HR professionals have a very critical role which is not just limited to
human resource management for organizational performance and
effectiveness, but extends to counselling, coaching, and mentoring of
CEOs to develop the right instinct and habits.
This would call for excellence skills and transformational role on the
part of the HR professionals.


SEVEN RULES OF
EXCELLENCE FOR HR
PROFESSIONALS

SEVEN RULES OF EXCELLENCE FOR HR
PROFESSIONALS

1. Become Leader, not a Manager

The basic skills of excellence in HR require a professional to build
people, bind people together with hearts, minds, and souls and for this
he has to become a leader and not a mere professional.
Every organization that has maintained its excellence over the period
of time has been able to do so because it had a leader and not a
manager who was able to transform the culture of excellence.
While a professional does things right, as a leader HR professionals
should always do right things While a manager may use the authority
to discharge his functions, as a leader you should use your power
derived from the respect of your subordinates.





Source : "Seven Rules of Excellence for HR Professionals" by Mr Anil Kaushik, Management Expert &
Chief Editor Business Manager.

Seven Rules Of Excellence For HR Professionals.........
Distinction between leaders and managers

Managers administer, leaders innovate;
Managers ask how and when, leaders ask what and why;
Managers focus on systems, leaders focus on people;
Managers do things right, leaders do the right things;
Managers maintain, leaders develop;
Managers rely on control, leaders inspire trust;
Managers have a short-term perspective, leaders have long-term perspective;
Managers accept the status quo, leaders challenge the status quo;
Managers have an eye on the bottom line, leaders have an eye on the horizon;
Managers imitate, leaders originate;
Managers emulate the classic good soldier, leaders are their own person; and
Manager's copy, leaders show originality.



Source : Warren Bennis (1989)


Seven Rules Of Excellence For HR Professionals.........
2. Be Careful, Honest, and Sincere while Selecting
Person

Engage right person at the right job. Don't try to fit a square in a hole.
Discourage favouritism in recruitment.
Don't compromise with the quality and requirement of the job. Always
prefer attitude in a person.
Engage for attitude and train for skills. It is the attitude of the person
which makes a difference while performing his job. Problem starts from
this point.





Seven Rules Of Excellence For HR Professionals.........
3. Don't Make Induction a Ritual

Most of the HR professionals perform induction as a ritual and leave it
on subordinates which ultimately turn out to be an utter failure in
achieving purpose of this exercise.

HR professionals should mould a new employee and tune him with the
organizational culture.

Most of the new employees leaving the organization in a short tenure
reveal the startling fact of their poor/negative induction at the time of
joining making de-motivation as their prime cause.





Seven Rules Of Excellence For HR Professionals.........
4. Make the Employee Clear what is Expected from Him

It is for the HR professional to ensure that employees working in the
organization are well aware of what the organization expects from
them.


5. Be Firm and Fair

An HR professional has to practise this policy down the line all the
time. While dealing employee relations, he has to exhibit and display
his firmness and fairness even in sensitive situations to command
respect from all corners.
He has to champion the cause of employees and organization too.




Seven Rules Of Excellence For HR Professionals.........
6. Confront Problems

An HR professional who escape from tricky situations and problems
cannot excel in discharging his functions.
He has to confront the problems as they arise and disseminate them.
Avoiding problems and keeping the dust under the carpet will not pave
the way of excellence.
In any organization where HR people pass the buck and shift the
burden of problems like shuttle cock are bound to face more complex
situations which may explode in a more aggressive way causing
irreparable losses to organization culture.




Seven Rules Of Excellence For HR Professionals.........
7. Apply the 20:80 Principle

As an HR professional, it is not necessary all the time to use your
technical knowledge for achieving excellence but what is required is
the skill of dealing with people and this ratio is known as 20-80.
80% is of your people handling skills in all situations with common
sense management of human dignity and 20% is of your technical
knowledge.
If you reverse this ratio, you may never achieve excellence.



Appraising HR Function:
Energizing for corporate success
HR should not be defined by what it does, but by what
it delivers results that enrich the organization's value
to customers, investors and employee.
Microsoft Corporation Its the peoples talents,
innovation, and excellence skills in this company
which have made it the Worlds No.1 Software
company.
Competitive advantage is no longer an option; it is the
only right choice to be made.
HR function has to speak the language of CEO in
focusing on revenue growth.
How to appraise performance of HR
Function - Performance Scorecard
Performance
Scorecard
Operations
Financial
HR
Customer
Operations Perspective Quality of processes & services
and their alignment with HR.
Metrics for knowing effectiveness, efficiency, and quality
Financial Perspective Cost containment of compensation
& benefits
People are not costs.
HR Perspective Delivery of results (employee training &
corporate cultural attitude).
Intrapreneur workforce
Customer Perspective Responsiveness, focus, delight,
satisfaction.
Innovation, faster decision making, effective linkage.
Future Roles of HR Professionals
in Performance Management
Changes expected to occur w.r.t performance
management :
A move away from mere result orientation to
process orientation linked to results.
A focus on individual excellence to
organizational excellence.
A paradigm shift from evaluation, assessment of
human resources to their development as prime
objective.
HR Professional Shall :
1. Be responsible for building the competency of the
organization.



2. Be able to pre-empt performance problems in
advance and ensure its speedy and reliable
rectification.
HR Professional Shall : (Contd.)
3. Act as Performance Counsellor.




4. Use entrepreneurship skills critically to improve
organizational performance.



Inter-connectivity for shared vision
The task of an HR professional is to build the
competencies into the fabric of business in order
to drive the strategies and processes that enable
an organization to reach its goals & strategic
development.

Dont pray for me .. Im only blind. Pray for
those who have no vision.
Helen Keller
Future Vision
Present Action
Plan
Past
experiences