HR on Leadership

Personnel Today reports that a new survey by HR with Guts and Orion Partners, suggests that 42% of HR professionals think the quality of leadership in HR is poor or satisfactory. The results show a conflict within HR – while HR Business partners (HRBPs) continue to try to fill the traditional inherited roles, at the same time they are trying to show their understanding of the need to develop more strategic behaviours and competencies.

Findings include:
• Over 40% of heads of HR think that ‘taking a stand on what they believe’ is very important
• 15% of respondents ranked ‘taking a risk’ as very important
• 53% of HRBPs think that ‘providing unquestioning service’ was either important or very important.

The survey shows, however, that while there is a long way to go, progress is being made on how HR considers its role.

• Only 3% of HRBPs and 6% of heads of HR thought that ‘loves helping people’ was very important
• 90% of heads of HR thought that ‘solving business problems’ was important or very important.

The survey also underlined a disparity between how senior and junior HR practitioners see the function. While 71% of heads of HR described themselves as willing or very willing to take a risk, only 3% of people lower down the HR rankings considered that their bosses (that 71% included!) likely to take a risk.

Jan Hills, of HR with Guts, says:

…it is not enough for HR to begin to develop the new behaviors needed, they also need to liberate themselves from the legacies of HR’s past process and logistical functionality. Following the new generation HR is not rocket science but it can be challenging and it can be hard work, there are a lot of new things to learn and although there are many types of training and assistance that can help in this area, companies need to be willing to invest in their HR if real progress is to be made.

This is interesting research, however, it makes me worry somewhat as it suggests HR has forgotten that people are at the core of the businesses it serves. There is no shame in HR people caring about people for goodness sake. I believe that the focus on people and creating meaning for them in the workplace is going to represent the future of the profession as a step on from the current focus on issues like “strategic focus”. As HR improves its knowledge of business it will have to seek ways of finding HR leavers which provide competitive advantage for our organisations. If these leavers are not people focused then we might as well give up as a profession and start to study accountancy!