Hi HR Folks,
Would like to share an article written by Mr T V Rao who is considered Father of Indian HRD Movement.
Thought provoking article which made me realize & do serious introspection of what i have been doing all these years!.
Happy Reading!
Cheerio
Rajat Joshi
A brief telephonic conversation between a HRD consultant and a HRD Head in an organization
Consultant: Madam this is ----HRD consultant calling from XYZ and we are into HRD consulting in this regard I just want to meet you personally for an hour or so to find out whether we can work with you help you in any of the HRD areas your org. is into
HRD Head: Fine, it’s glad to hear from you and if you don’t mind please give me a call around 3PM in the evening so that I can speak to you for some time
3PM: Yes, tell me sir, how I can help you.
Consultant: Give some time of you during this week madam so that I can come to you and discuss
HRD Head: No sir, it is not possible at all in this month I think I can give you some time in the second week of next month
Consultant: May I know why? Are you proceeding on a long leave?
HRD Head: No….No, I am totally busy with recruitment and Visa processing for this whole month
Consultant: Madam I am sorry, I was supposed to speak to the person who is looking after HRD in your organization
HRD Head: It’s absolutely myself. I am heading the HRD department. I am responsible for analyzing the T&D needs and designing the training programes and all other initiatives related to HRD.
Consultant: Madam may I know the brief activities of HR in your organization.
HRD Head: General activities like recruitment, induction, payroll, transport, leave management and facility administration.
Consultant: Anything else..
HRD Head: Well we have a very vibrant Appraisal system designed and developed in US, We have some game sessions for all the technical staff where HR people coordinate the activity every month. We have some quarterly employee’s family get-togethers where people freak-out and enjoy like anything and the whole coordination responsibility lies with HR. Along with that u know T&D activities, which are mostly technical areas decided by Technical heads where we will need to finalize the dates and trainers and taking approvals for it. Above all what ever that is assigned by management any way we have to do. Anything else u need more.
Consultant: Madam, may I know the process of your recruitment
HRD Head: Well we are into a scientific process of recruitment which will be like his
· Get the manpower indent from Project head
· Get it approved from CEO
· Get the job description and specifications from Tech-Head
· Go for an public advertisement or Hire a recruitment consultant
· Preliminary interview by HR dept & Final Technical interview
Consultant: Madam, what this preliminary interview is all about?
HRD Head: Well this is all about
· Filling up of the application form – Standard application form
· Verification of Qualification, experience & pay certificates
· Verification of other eligibility criteria as per job specifications given by technical heads
Consultant: Thanq madam, thanks for your information and time. I will get in touch with you in the next month. Bye Good day.
HRD Head: Thanq sir, I think I have given you my mail ID and mobile number in our last discussion please keep mailing and calling the HR related information & news. Bye...Bye
This is happened with one of my friend who is into consulting and he shared the experience with me in a party. I don’t know why but, time and again the incident comes to my mind and ends up with number of questions and more number of explanations and justifications. Few among the questions were like,
· Why the company’s are paying lot of money on HR professionals to get the above narrated things done?
· Can’t they (managements) manage to get the administrative things done with a smart 10+2 or graduate candidate?
· How come a HRD head can be busy with recruitment for a whole month?
· Did the management not aware of the fact that, there are many other things which a HRD head should do to add value or influence the business performance?
· May be the HRD head failed to make the management aware of the basic purpose of a HRD department and its need and impact on business performance?
· May be HRD people are more interested in having satisfied employees than productive employees.
· May be very low level of integration approach of HRD systems with Business processes.
If all these are true to some extent, probably that is the nearest reason why even after 29 years of professional HRD birth with L&T by IIMA professors( Rao & Pareek,1975) in India, still HRD professionals struggling and finding jargons to convince the managements about it’s importance and need in organizations. It’s very much true as said by a Technical Head in an organization that, if HR is there only to execute it’s better to outsource the entire function or reduce the costs by recruiting smart graduates instead of professionals from premier B-Shools. I personally agree with the statement of the technical head if HRD don’t concentrate and work on the issues like,
· Specific contribution to the business challenges (Not HR)
· Evolution of compatible and unique HR systems and processes
· Documentation of the need, process and expected results of each and every HR systems ( Justification on Investment- JOI)
· Translating the outputs of HR systems into financial terms (Return on investment)
Specific contribution to the business challenges (Not HR)
What kind of specific contributions that HR can give to business challenges? Invariably in one form or the other all organizations of the globe fall into 4 categories of business models such as,
· Same products & same markets,
· New markets,
· New products and
· New products along with new markets.
Keeping these broad categories into view HR department need to work on the priorities. One can visualize the challenges looking at the model of the business like, taking revenues away from competition by increasing the quality consciousness, customer orientation, cost reduction, cross-cultural management, and promoting culture of innovation and adaptability, integrating the local and global needs etc.
Taking rapid developments in technology as a basic characteristic of business for every 18 months (Moore’s law) it is very much necessary to develop the cultural competencies of the organization along with the technical competencies. Specific contribution to business challenges is all about developing a culture that facilitate the core competency of the organization and finding the capability level of people to maximize the core competency for global market competition in present as well as future.
Evolution of compatible and unique systems and processes
· Being an intelligent and value adding HRD person one should always keep in mind that, what we see is not important but why we see? One should not go for a borrow and use or peripheral coating systems inorder to make the HR presence felt by other departments. It should be properly studied, analyzed and then tested. One best practice in one organization in a location may turns to be a worst in another part of the globe. All best HR practices are evolved not borrowed. So every organization should evolve their own systems and processes of HR which suits to their culture and meets their requirements.
Documentation of the need, process and expected results/outputs of each and every HR systems (Justification on Investment- JOI)
· More often than not it happens that, every part of the organization will document their processes except HR. All the HR departments now at cross roads and thinking about the basic need for them in the organizations? May be all individual functions of the department have some goal and objective but, when the issue boils down at a common point HR as a whole need to have an answer. In this context it is inevitable for organizations to document the need, process and results/outputs of the designed systems and processes. This in modern terms called as justification on investment for each and every action being taken during the execution of the system.
Translating the outputs of HR systems into financial terms (Return on investment)
· Last but not the least, finally the ball game ends at March 31st on the big B (Business) day. Measuring the returns on investment of HR systems and processes is very easy if we know what to measure. We should be clear with the dimensions on which the measurement is to be made, once if that is clear it is very easy to measure the revenue and its impact.
For illustration sake, let us take recruitment as a HR process for measurement.
· Considering that a candidate is being selected for a position in the organization with a salary of Rs. 10,000/-PM. That comes to Rs. 1, 60,000/-PA including the over-head costs of training, opportunity and legal compliances costs. Organization expects minimum return of 25% more than the investment in the first year it made on the candidate which comes around Rs.40, 000/-PA. Now imagine that if the candidate leaves after one year after his service because he/she doesn’t like the culture, compensation or growth prospects of the organization or HR department itself will ask him/her to leave because of poor performance standards. If we analyze this case carefully, there are many issues which come up
· In the first condition HR people may not have tested the cultural suitability of the person or may not formed a vibrant policies to retain the talent
· In second case HR may not have tested the technical competencies in a proper manner
· There may be some communication gap between the individuals and policies
· May not have a competitive compensation system to retain the talent
Ultimately the loss to the organization on total is Rs. 2 lakhs financially and one year timely, after which the process again starts from recruitment. Considering this illustration, a HR man can say that their ROI on a successful single hiring is 2 lakhs, calculate the same to any number multiply by 2 lakhs. If HRD can do it thoroughly and consciously with all the generic functions of HR there is no wonder if it runs into figures which are more than the net profits of the organization.
In this context, for a given instance we should not ignore the generic functions of HR like recruitment, induction training, appraisal, compensation and training but, they needs to be executed more effectively with less manpower and more quality to meet the short-term strategies and goals of the organization. Organizations which move in this direction of generic and strategic classifications will compete and survive in the markets with increased profits and global presence and obviously HR people who move in the strategic direction of core culture management which facilitates the core competency of the organization will be called as “True HRD professionals”.
Reference:
1. Dr.TVRao (1991) article on the manager, his functions, competencies and their development from the book “Readings in Human resource management”-Oxford & Ibh Delhi & Calcutta. Pp(3-19)
2. Prof. Wayne Brockbank article on “Human resources future on the way to a prescence” from Tomorrows HR Management pp(155-162 )
Dave Ulrich article on “ Human resources of the future: conclusions and observations” from Tomorrows HR Management (pp354-360)
From India, Pune
101Would like to share an article written by Mr T V Rao who is considered Father of Indian HRD Movement.
Thought provoking article which made me realize & do serious introspection of what i have been doing all these years!.
Happy Reading!
Cheerio
Rajat Joshi
A brief telephonic conversation between a HRD consultant and a HRD Head in an organization
Consultant: Madam this is ----HRD consultant calling from XYZ and we are into HRD consulting in this regard I just want to meet you personally for an hour or so to find out whether we can work with you help you in any of the HRD areas your org. is into
HRD Head: Fine, it’s glad to hear from you and if you don’t mind please give me a call around 3PM in the evening so that I can speak to you for some time
3PM: Yes, tell me sir, how I can help you.
Consultant: Give some time of you during this week madam so that I can come to you and discuss
HRD Head: No sir, it is not possible at all in this month I think I can give you some time in the second week of next month
Consultant: May I know why? Are you proceeding on a long leave?
HRD Head: No….No, I am totally busy with recruitment and Visa processing for this whole month
Consultant: Madam I am sorry, I was supposed to speak to the person who is looking after HRD in your organization
HRD Head: It’s absolutely myself. I am heading the HRD department. I am responsible for analyzing the T&D needs and designing the training programes and all other initiatives related to HRD.
Consultant: Madam may I know the brief activities of HR in your organization.
HRD Head: General activities like recruitment, induction, payroll, transport, leave management and facility administration.
Consultant: Anything else..
HRD Head: Well we have a very vibrant Appraisal system designed and developed in US, We have some game sessions for all the technical staff where HR people coordinate the activity every month. We have some quarterly employee’s family get-togethers where people freak-out and enjoy like anything and the whole coordination responsibility lies with HR. Along with that u know T&D activities, which are mostly technical areas decided by Technical heads where we will need to finalize the dates and trainers and taking approvals for it. Above all what ever that is assigned by management any way we have to do. Anything else u need more.
Consultant: Madam, may I know the process of your recruitment
HRD Head: Well we are into a scientific process of recruitment which will be like his
· Get the manpower indent from Project head
· Get it approved from CEO
· Get the job description and specifications from Tech-Head
· Go for an public advertisement or Hire a recruitment consultant
· Preliminary interview by HR dept & Final Technical interview
Consultant: Madam, what this preliminary interview is all about?
HRD Head: Well this is all about
· Filling up of the application form – Standard application form
· Verification of Qualification, experience & pay certificates
· Verification of other eligibility criteria as per job specifications given by technical heads
Consultant: Thanq madam, thanks for your information and time. I will get in touch with you in the next month. Bye Good day.
HRD Head: Thanq sir, I think I have given you my mail ID and mobile number in our last discussion please keep mailing and calling the HR related information & news. Bye...Bye
This is happened with one of my friend who is into consulting and he shared the experience with me in a party. I don’t know why but, time and again the incident comes to my mind and ends up with number of questions and more number of explanations and justifications. Few among the questions were like,
· Why the company’s are paying lot of money on HR professionals to get the above narrated things done?
· Can’t they (managements) manage to get the administrative things done with a smart 10+2 or graduate candidate?
· How come a HRD head can be busy with recruitment for a whole month?
· Did the management not aware of the fact that, there are many other things which a HRD head should do to add value or influence the business performance?
· May be the HRD head failed to make the management aware of the basic purpose of a HRD department and its need and impact on business performance?
· May be HRD people are more interested in having satisfied employees than productive employees.
· May be very low level of integration approach of HRD systems with Business processes.
If all these are true to some extent, probably that is the nearest reason why even after 29 years of professional HRD birth with L&T by IIMA professors( Rao & Pareek,1975) in India, still HRD professionals struggling and finding jargons to convince the managements about it’s importance and need in organizations. It’s very much true as said by a Technical Head in an organization that, if HR is there only to execute it’s better to outsource the entire function or reduce the costs by recruiting smart graduates instead of professionals from premier B-Shools. I personally agree with the statement of the technical head if HRD don’t concentrate and work on the issues like,
· Specific contribution to the business challenges (Not HR)
· Evolution of compatible and unique HR systems and processes
· Documentation of the need, process and expected results of each and every HR systems ( Justification on Investment- JOI)
· Translating the outputs of HR systems into financial terms (Return on investment)
Specific contribution to the business challenges (Not HR)
What kind of specific contributions that HR can give to business challenges? Invariably in one form or the other all organizations of the globe fall into 4 categories of business models such as,
· Same products & same markets,
· New markets,
· New products and
· New products along with new markets.
Keeping these broad categories into view HR department need to work on the priorities. One can visualize the challenges looking at the model of the business like, taking revenues away from competition by increasing the quality consciousness, customer orientation, cost reduction, cross-cultural management, and promoting culture of innovation and adaptability, integrating the local and global needs etc.
Taking rapid developments in technology as a basic characteristic of business for every 18 months (Moore’s law) it is very much necessary to develop the cultural competencies of the organization along with the technical competencies. Specific contribution to business challenges is all about developing a culture that facilitate the core competency of the organization and finding the capability level of people to maximize the core competency for global market competition in present as well as future.
Evolution of compatible and unique systems and processes
· Being an intelligent and value adding HRD person one should always keep in mind that, what we see is not important but why we see? One should not go for a borrow and use or peripheral coating systems inorder to make the HR presence felt by other departments. It should be properly studied, analyzed and then tested. One best practice in one organization in a location may turns to be a worst in another part of the globe. All best HR practices are evolved not borrowed. So every organization should evolve their own systems and processes of HR which suits to their culture and meets their requirements.
Documentation of the need, process and expected results/outputs of each and every HR systems (Justification on Investment- JOI)
· More often than not it happens that, every part of the organization will document their processes except HR. All the HR departments now at cross roads and thinking about the basic need for them in the organizations? May be all individual functions of the department have some goal and objective but, when the issue boils down at a common point HR as a whole need to have an answer. In this context it is inevitable for organizations to document the need, process and results/outputs of the designed systems and processes. This in modern terms called as justification on investment for each and every action being taken during the execution of the system.
Translating the outputs of HR systems into financial terms (Return on investment)
· Last but not the least, finally the ball game ends at March 31st on the big B (Business) day. Measuring the returns on investment of HR systems and processes is very easy if we know what to measure. We should be clear with the dimensions on which the measurement is to be made, once if that is clear it is very easy to measure the revenue and its impact.
For illustration sake, let us take recruitment as a HR process for measurement.
· Considering that a candidate is being selected for a position in the organization with a salary of Rs. 10,000/-PM. That comes to Rs. 1, 60,000/-PA including the over-head costs of training, opportunity and legal compliances costs. Organization expects minimum return of 25% more than the investment in the first year it made on the candidate which comes around Rs.40, 000/-PA. Now imagine that if the candidate leaves after one year after his service because he/she doesn’t like the culture, compensation or growth prospects of the organization or HR department itself will ask him/her to leave because of poor performance standards. If we analyze this case carefully, there are many issues which come up
· In the first condition HR people may not have tested the cultural suitability of the person or may not formed a vibrant policies to retain the talent
· In second case HR may not have tested the technical competencies in a proper manner
· There may be some communication gap between the individuals and policies
· May not have a competitive compensation system to retain the talent
Ultimately the loss to the organization on total is Rs. 2 lakhs financially and one year timely, after which the process again starts from recruitment. Considering this illustration, a HR man can say that their ROI on a successful single hiring is 2 lakhs, calculate the same to any number multiply by 2 lakhs. If HRD can do it thoroughly and consciously with all the generic functions of HR there is no wonder if it runs into figures which are more than the net profits of the organization.
In this context, for a given instance we should not ignore the generic functions of HR like recruitment, induction training, appraisal, compensation and training but, they needs to be executed more effectively with less manpower and more quality to meet the short-term strategies and goals of the organization. Organizations which move in this direction of generic and strategic classifications will compete and survive in the markets with increased profits and global presence and obviously HR people who move in the strategic direction of core culture management which facilitates the core competency of the organization will be called as “True HRD professionals”.
Reference:
1. Dr.TVRao (1991) article on the manager, his functions, competencies and their development from the book “Readings in Human resource management”-Oxford & Ibh Delhi & Calcutta. Pp(3-19)
2. Prof. Wayne Brockbank article on “Human resources future on the way to a prescence” from Tomorrows HR Management pp(155-162 )
Dave Ulrich article on “ Human resources of the future: conclusions and observations” from Tomorrows HR Management (pp354-360)
From India, Pune
Hi,
It is a very good article & inculcating HR professional to select a alternative / innovative path instead of routine HR path.
Thank you very much for sharing with us.. look forward to more frm you..
Thanks
N.Kannan / HR
From India, Madras
It is a very good article & inculcating HR professional to select a alternative / innovative path instead of routine HR path.
Thank you very much for sharing with us.. look forward to more frm you..
Thanks
N.Kannan / HR
From India, Madras
Hi rajat
Firstly acept my chers for this article.This probably is the crux for Hr to justify its role.We shld eliminete the image of HR being seen as an administrative function.
we shld b able 2 quantify our roles coz thats the only way to substantiate our efforts.
wish to share info on similar topics since iam a HR Exec at a startup IT company.
Regards
ramesh K
9880804822
From India, Bangalore
Firstly acept my chers for this article.This probably is the crux for Hr to justify its role.We shld eliminete the image of HR being seen as an administrative function.
we shld b able 2 quantify our roles coz thats the only way to substantiate our efforts.
wish to share info on similar topics since iam a HR Exec at a startup IT company.
Regards
ramesh K
9880804822
From India, Bangalore
Dear Rajat,
My name is Sadashiv Rao & I am a HR Executive based in Kuwait & I happened to see the article (Can I call you an HR porofessional) Very interesting one!!!!! . I wish to thank you for the same & I have just registered myself as a member on this site . I am sure that with articles /ideas / suggestions & exchange of the same will lead to a tremendous improvement in our job as well as our career. Thank you once again.
Regards,
Sadashiv Rao
Kuwait
From Kuwait, Kuwait
My name is Sadashiv Rao & I am a HR Executive based in Kuwait & I happened to see the article (Can I call you an HR porofessional) Very interesting one!!!!! . I wish to thank you for the same & I have just registered myself as a member on this site . I am sure that with articles /ideas / suggestions & exchange of the same will lead to a tremendous improvement in our job as well as our career. Thank you once again.
Regards,
Sadashiv Rao
Kuwait
From Kuwait, Kuwait
HI,
VERY TRUE .IF WE DUNT STRIVE HARD AND CONTRIBUTE IN BUILDING A CULTURE WHICH ENSURES PERFORMANCE AND ALWAYS MEETS CHELLENGES OF THE MARKET, HRD AND HR PROFESSIONALS WOULD FACE A SLOW DISINTEGRATION AND FINALLY WOULD A NON EXISTENCE PROFESSION.
WITH PAIN IN THE HEART I AM SAYING THIS.
I AM ELANCO, MSW .HR PROFESSIONAL WITH 14 YEARS EXPERENCE.
From United States, Columbus
VERY TRUE .IF WE DUNT STRIVE HARD AND CONTRIBUTE IN BUILDING A CULTURE WHICH ENSURES PERFORMANCE AND ALWAYS MEETS CHELLENGES OF THE MARKET, HRD AND HR PROFESSIONALS WOULD FACE A SLOW DISINTEGRATION AND FINALLY WOULD A NON EXISTENCE PROFESSION.
WITH PAIN IN THE HEART I AM SAYING THIS.
I AM ELANCO, MSW .HR PROFESSIONAL WITH 14 YEARS EXPERENCE.
From United States, Columbus
Dear Colleagues,
This issue has always been a fundamental one...and it is going to continue until HRM Practitioners stand up to what they believe ought to be the standards in their chosen career-which is HRM.
Firstly there is this erroneous impression that anyone can carryout the functions of an HR!!! especsially in a small unit office, this is not true.
Secondly most times CEOs or owners of companies pick on some one they are familiar with to appoint as HR Managers- for different reasons best known to them.
Thirdly we as HRM Practitioners should start seeing our profession as very important and that no one should practice without certification approved by the state just the way Accountants have to be certified before they can practice. eg CIPD, IPMN etal
In addition we should always try as much as possible to uphold professional standards no matter who is involved- we can always get a new job!!!
Thanks
From Nigeria, Lagos
This issue has always been a fundamental one...and it is going to continue until HRM Practitioners stand up to what they believe ought to be the standards in their chosen career-which is HRM.
Firstly there is this erroneous impression that anyone can carryout the functions of an HR!!! especsially in a small unit office, this is not true.
Secondly most times CEOs or owners of companies pick on some one they are familiar with to appoint as HR Managers- for different reasons best known to them.
Thirdly we as HRM Practitioners should start seeing our profession as very important and that no one should practice without certification approved by the state just the way Accountants have to be certified before they can practice. eg CIPD, IPMN etal
In addition we should always try as much as possible to uphold professional standards no matter who is involved- we can always get a new job!!!
Thanks
From Nigeria, Lagos
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