Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Vision must be aligned with biz goals
Business Standard - 23rd May 2007
| Developing a people function strategy and running specific HR sub-functions are two different activities that require different approaches. |
| Q. I am a 37-year-old senior manager of a newly set up bank. I have been brought in with the mandate of developing a forward looking and robust HR function for the organisation, including building the HR team. While I have more than 10 years of solid experience in HR operations and team management, I can’t seem to get a grip on how to go about defining the HR function for my organisation. How do I go about setting a direction and defining the specific focus areas for a new HR function? |
| A. This is a commonly faced situation for managers who are transitioning from an operational role to a leadership role in organisations. A good starting point is to realise that developing a people function strategy and running specific HR sub-functions are two different activities which require different approaches. While senior business managers are expected to develop a vision for organisations to build the business strategy, the HR vision stays a mere document. It is important to begin with a blue-sky vision of how the HR function will address the ‘employee lifecycle’. The key focus is on defining a vision which is achievable, and supports in making the business idea successful. |
| HR managers also need to take precautions to ensure that their vision is aligned to specific business objectives; that it is not defined on the basis of an HR leader’s overzealous attempt to have best practices learnt in previous experiences applied to the ‘new organisation’. |
| To be able to build an HR infrastructure which is completely focused on business success, HR managers need to ensure focus on some key rules from the initial stages: |
| Lastly, the HR function needs to develop specific programmes to create a definitive culture in the organisation at the time of starting up. That is the best time to ensure desired behaviours are institutionalised before these can be cascaded over a larger workforce. |
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