What seemed like a ‘la la land’-esque a few years ago, is dawning upon us albeit steadily. HR through the incorporation of modern technology, agile operations and a more invested approach to its various domains is raising a clarion call to make it to the strategic table. With earnest efforts made towards understanding human incentive in workplaces, we are inching closer towards narrowing down to an ideal set of behaviours that can help organisations make the right choice throughout the employment life cycle. Organisations always want to hire right, groom right, retain right and promote right; and now with data sneaking into these aspects of the erstwhile dormant HR function, we have credible analysis to help the business make the right people choices. However, how effective are such exercises? How many instances do we have where the HR function made the entire business sit up with admirable stupor?
There is no denying the fact that people analytics has some vociferous support – and rightly so. The present is exciting and the future is alluring. So, what else do we need to do hasten our bait to the strategic table and be taken as a serious and valuable analytics function? The answer lies in reimaging and rebranding HR – in the eyes of our business and more importantly, in our own eyes. The perception and projection of HR’s capabilities must be in sync which sadly, is not always the case. HR is very much caught in the quagmire of ensuring “cost-effectiveness” which in itself is NOT wrong, being a support function. A recent PWC report on the effectiveness of HR bemoans this “cost center mentality” and stresses that “HR needs to hold itself to higher standards”. HR needs to move beyond cost and re-invent itself. Rather, add a twist to how we project ourselves in the organization. Let us talk more about how HR impacts the employee and business experience on a much more regular basis than we usually do.
In this capricious world where job roles, talent hunt, the expectation of employees as well as organizations are extremely demanding, HR needs to up its game in projecting the value that we can/do deliver to the business. We are much more than just meeting the target workforce. We must remain invested in exploring and rationalizing solutions to the human experience and incentives in the workplace. This will enable us to partner with the business rather than being reduced to an appendage whose existence is forlorn and taken for granted; apart from an occasional flicker.
About the Author:
Anshu is an HR Analytics professional working with a leading international bank. She enjoys weaving stories around employee engagement and HR transformation.
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