Editor’s Note – Today’s post is brought to you courtesy of Dustin Henderson, co-founder of MeritBuilder. Dustin went to HR Southwest conference last week to cover the show for us. You can follow him on Twitter. Thanks!
If the products found on the floor of HR Southwest are any indication, then the answer is a definitive yes. Between booths for lawyers and those who believe performance management involves issuing little notes every time an employee asks a question (you know who you are), there are plenty of products to help HR put up a great defense. Do the products offered reflect the feelings of HR practitioners?
I know the suspense is killing you so I will put you out of your misery: The answer is a clearly NO. Like teachers who don’t enter the teaching profession worried about the quickest approach to meeting state standards, HR folks truly want to help people!
In search of an answer to this apparent dichotomy I decided to stop talking to consultants and start talking to those practicing HR. If you separate those HR practitioners who were shooting for law school, but landed in HR – almost 100% of the respondents were in the business to help others. In many cases there was a clear willingness to self-sacrifice.
With each person, I asked “Why are you in HR.” After asking the same question and getting nothing but compassionate results, I knew there was something wrong. So I changed the question to “What does your CEO want from HR?” With the answers came the eureka moment.
The simple fact was that the CEO’s desires or expectations of HR are overriding those “empowered” to develop and execute the HR strategy.
The most engaged and excited HR execs were those who had a CEO who understood the true power of HR. Many told me of nightmare CEOs who relegated their contribution to the expense side of the balance sheet and as such something to be minimized. Most told me of poor support for their “touchy feely” approach to people.
Is your CEO playing defense? Here are some signs:
- Keeps the facts to himself
- Cut recognition and incentive budgets first
- Culture is a four-letter word
- Engagement is measured by the P&L
- Seeks to be a “competitive” employer
If this were just another post pointing out the obvious challenges faced by HR, then I would not waste my time writing it. Instead, I want to take a moment to suggest a solution. The following recommendations assume that you cannot fire your CEO.
How to get your CEO playing offense:
Stop it: Whatever you have been doing, stop doing it. Reevaluate everything because the messages you have been sending your CEO is not working. Learning to sing the same old messages in the perfect key will not change the outcome.
Shut Up: If you cannot prove it, shut up. You are not doing your cause any good.
Learn the Language: It is a bit of a bummer but your CEO is not going to learn the language of HR. He or she is much more concerned with keeping shareholders happy or making payroll. And to be honest, those concerns are more important than yours. So learn how to express your concerns in a language your CEO understands.
Step Out: Stop attending HR conferences that just reinforce what you already know. Start reading trade magazines that pertain to your company’s industry. While you are expected to know HR, you are a real asset when you can apply that knowledge to your company’s unique situation.
Find your own Facts: Stop looking for support to hire a HR consultant or to do a 20K employee engagement evaluation. Go onto the web, do the research. Figure out the questions to ask and then hop over to surveymonkey.com and do your own survey. While this will not be 100% scientific, it will give you a baseline fast!
Communicate Only Value: There was a newspaper man credited with the saying “Don’t burry the lead.” When you talk about anything start with the value to the CEO. How will this idea help him make shareholders happy or how will it help make payroll. If you cannot support your idea with hard numbers, skip it (see shut up). If you are RIGHT, then there will be hard numbers. Go find them and put them on the first slide.
Don’t Stop Believing: If you believe that treating people with dignity is important, that honesty tends to be the best policy, that engagement is more about passion than it is about satisfaction and that people really are your competitive differentiator, FIGHT FOR IT.
If you are an HR exec and in the business to help people, you must figure out the best strategy to achieve that goal. Your CEO sucks is not an acceptable excuse. You must figure out how to use what you have. The interesting thing is, if you are successful then it might not just be the people you help, but the entire company.
Offense is defined as “the means or method of attacking or of attempting to score.” Figure out the correct means and method and you will score. In doing so, you will transform your HR mantra to “Offense is the Best Offense.”
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FYI
GREAT POST! Agree 100% with you that learning the language and communicating value are critical. Those two topics should be covered in any HR certification.
Thanks for your insight and I look forward to reading more on this topic.
FINALLY! Yes the bottom line must always be aligned with the softine strategy of effective Human Resources Management. Thanks for sharing the insight.
Excellent post. I always believed in determining what causes the stress of the CEO and help him overcome it. You will then be an asset to the company.
but do not forget that some CEOs can be a natural limitation to their subordinates (and to HR as well). So, if in the most difficult cases, it’s not an option to rack yourself – it’s rather better to find another CEO with whom you’ll have more common points. Professional consistency does matter, and what HRs should do is customizing (or sometimes inventing) HRM tools for the specific organization – but not changing the HR industry standards in their core.
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