What makes a powerful HR manager?
The answer depends on HR's ability to understand their company's business goals and get along with line managers.
Official company statements typically claim “employees are our most valuable assets”. This would lead one to believe that HR, the department charged with managing people assets, is powerful. The reality is that all too often HR managers are treated like poor relations of other functional departments.
Yet some HR managers are strategic members of their company. They have risen above the keepers of administrivia and are equal partners of their colleagues.
Such powerful HR managers do not wait like Little Lord Fauntleroy — the fictional children's character born in poverty then discovers he's an English lord — for someone to hand them power. Instead they demonstrate, on a daily basis, that they are worthy of the power and responsibility they take.
What are the common traits of powerful HR managers?
Understand the business
These HR managers understand the company’s business, goals and strategies and explain their policies in terms of furthering them.
“Engineering explains why maintaining a plant is a worthwhile investment by demonstrating how money spent today prevents the need to spend more money in the future,” says an HR manager in a London financial services company. “Yet, often HR do not understand the financial impact of their demands, cannot read a balance sheet and are not very numerate.”
Expats are sent abroad to help the company achieve a goal, so HR must describe their policies in terms of maintaining this investment.
Huw Francis, a management consultant and author living in France, says, “HR would have more power in the selection of expats and their ongoing support if they would continually point out the cost to the company of getting it wrong and the posting being a failure.”
he inability to speak the language of business lowers HR’s credibility.
“Instead of explaining policies in terms of effect on the bottom line, HR managers explain things in touchy-feely terms. If HR wants to be seen as more than a good thing, we must show that we are focused on business goals,” according to the HR manager in a Dutch consumer products company.
Partner with line management
“The issue is not power within the HR organisation, but the power of individual people within the organisation. People have influence based on their own integrity. It is something they earn, they are not given it,” according to the head of international transfers at a multinational petrochemical company.
Magellan: International HR networking group
Qualities every IHR manager should have
In order to effect change, people must know the HR manager and trust him/her. This does not happen over night. Trust is developed over time as line managers learn that they can expect sane, rational decisions, grounded in business reality, from the HR manager.
Partnering with line managers does not mean that HR always agrees with them. It means that HR listens to the line manager with an open mind and is willing to work together to devise a solution.
And, when an exceptional request cannot be honoured, the HR manager accepts responsibility for explaining the decision in business terms and does not hide behind “the policy”.
In essence, the powerful HR manager is accountable for his/her decisions.
Communicate with the expat family
Robin Pascoe, editor of Expat Press claims, “I wouldn’t generalise and say HR don’t want to help, but too many of them give the impression that they would rather have a root canal than deal with family stuff.”
The advent of computers has made it easier for HR managers to hide from their constituents. Open and honest communication is crucial for HR to have the power they need to make changes.
Once expat families see HR managers as the enemy, the lines of communication close and battle lines are drawn.
HR managers should be honest about the realities of the expat assignment and explain the whys and wherefores of the policies to the expat and their spouse. They should manage the expectations of their expats and help them understand the reality of the situation.
“If this were an ideal world, I would give each family going abroad everything they wanted,” says the HR director of a French pharmaceutical company.
“However, I work in the real world, and my company needs policies that provide the best support we can offer our expatriates within our fiscal constraints. This means I cannot agree to every request and I tell my families this at the outset.”
In summary, to be powerful, HR managers must understand their business, see themselves as part of the team rather than an island, and keep the lines of communication open.
A simple “thank you” or listening to someone who needs a place to vent can pay dividends in terms of providing influence, which can lead to effecting changes.
June 2002
Source: Carrie Shearer
Carrie Shearer spent 20 years in international HR, living and working in seven countries, as well as working at headquarters. Currently she runs a small international HR consulting practice and is a novelist who writes about expat living.
From Kuwait, Kuwait
6The answer depends on HR's ability to understand their company's business goals and get along with line managers.
Official company statements typically claim “employees are our most valuable assets”. This would lead one to believe that HR, the department charged with managing people assets, is powerful. The reality is that all too often HR managers are treated like poor relations of other functional departments.
Yet some HR managers are strategic members of their company. They have risen above the keepers of administrivia and are equal partners of their colleagues.
Such powerful HR managers do not wait like Little Lord Fauntleroy — the fictional children's character born in poverty then discovers he's an English lord — for someone to hand them power. Instead they demonstrate, on a daily basis, that they are worthy of the power and responsibility they take.
What are the common traits of powerful HR managers?
Understand the business
These HR managers understand the company’s business, goals and strategies and explain their policies in terms of furthering them.
“Engineering explains why maintaining a plant is a worthwhile investment by demonstrating how money spent today prevents the need to spend more money in the future,” says an HR manager in a London financial services company. “Yet, often HR do not understand the financial impact of their demands, cannot read a balance sheet and are not very numerate.”
Expats are sent abroad to help the company achieve a goal, so HR must describe their policies in terms of maintaining this investment.
Huw Francis, a management consultant and author living in France, says, “HR would have more power in the selection of expats and their ongoing support if they would continually point out the cost to the company of getting it wrong and the posting being a failure.”
he inability to speak the language of business lowers HR’s credibility.
“Instead of explaining policies in terms of effect on the bottom line, HR managers explain things in touchy-feely terms. If HR wants to be seen as more than a good thing, we must show that we are focused on business goals,” according to the HR manager in a Dutch consumer products company.
Partner with line management
“The issue is not power within the HR organisation, but the power of individual people within the organisation. People have influence based on their own integrity. It is something they earn, they are not given it,” according to the head of international transfers at a multinational petrochemical company.
Magellan: International HR networking group
Qualities every IHR manager should have
In order to effect change, people must know the HR manager and trust him/her. This does not happen over night. Trust is developed over time as line managers learn that they can expect sane, rational decisions, grounded in business reality, from the HR manager.
Partnering with line managers does not mean that HR always agrees with them. It means that HR listens to the line manager with an open mind and is willing to work together to devise a solution.
And, when an exceptional request cannot be honoured, the HR manager accepts responsibility for explaining the decision in business terms and does not hide behind “the policy”.
In essence, the powerful HR manager is accountable for his/her decisions.
Communicate with the expat family
Robin Pascoe, editor of Expat Press claims, “I wouldn’t generalise and say HR don’t want to help, but too many of them give the impression that they would rather have a root canal than deal with family stuff.”
The advent of computers has made it easier for HR managers to hide from their constituents. Open and honest communication is crucial for HR to have the power they need to make changes.
Once expat families see HR managers as the enemy, the lines of communication close and battle lines are drawn.
HR managers should be honest about the realities of the expat assignment and explain the whys and wherefores of the policies to the expat and their spouse. They should manage the expectations of their expats and help them understand the reality of the situation.
“If this were an ideal world, I would give each family going abroad everything they wanted,” says the HR director of a French pharmaceutical company.
“However, I work in the real world, and my company needs policies that provide the best support we can offer our expatriates within our fiscal constraints. This means I cannot agree to every request and I tell my families this at the outset.”
In summary, to be powerful, HR managers must understand their business, see themselves as part of the team rather than an island, and keep the lines of communication open.
A simple “thank you” or listening to someone who needs a place to vent can pay dividends in terms of providing influence, which can lead to effecting changes.
June 2002
Source: Carrie Shearer
Carrie Shearer spent 20 years in international HR, living and working in seven countries, as well as working at headquarters. Currently she runs a small international HR consulting practice and is a novelist who writes about expat living.
From Kuwait, Kuwait
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