In the past 30 years the bulk of HR effort is protecting the rear-end of the corporation. Compliance. Policy. Dealing with personnel issues which threaten the organization. The next largest chunk was transactional. Compensation and Benefits. Performance reviews and promotions. Support for reorganizations. Do everything personnel-related with as little money and labor as possible. The smallest portion was about talent development.
The legal and operational aspects will remain for corporations. They’re a cost of doing business. But optimizing exclusively for these is not going to help organizations thrive.
Therefore, I recommend leaders design the organization with separate-but-in-touch groups for (1) Operations & Compliance, and (2) Developing Employees. (Find better names!)
The burnout rate in HR is incredibly high. One of the major reasons for this is the mismatch between the people who go into HR roles and the major work being asked of them. People who love culture, org design, coaching and people development are generally NOT the people who thrive by creating transactional efficiencies and operations groups.
Organizations should hire people suited for operations work to execute and incrementally improve HR transactional systems, self-service, and help desks. Corporate policies and directives can be established by leaders who don’t need to be charged with day-to-day execution.
Everyone will happily repeat that “people are our greatest asset,” but our behaviors suggest otherwise. Plenty of energy has gone into “people development” activity. “But Glenn we’ve already been doing all that! It’s not working.” An emphasis on self-development is insufficient. Your current system is perfectly designed to generate the results you’re getting. If you aren’t satisfied with the results, you’ll need to change the system.
I suggest that we’ve been optimizing for the wrong things. Investing in the long game of talent development by optimizing for maturity and professionalism is the distinguishing opportunity. Cultivate and reward developing better skills. Create systematic plans to bring new people managers up to strong competence quickly. Set expectations for developing mastery of foundational skills like communication, running meetings and projects, and effective decision-making. Reward more senior and experienced employees helping others.
Also, consider who is leading as well as the means of developing people. Abandon the traditional metrics to gauge progress (e.g., # of course hours/employee/year). The apprentice model (training to learn new skills, practice with feedback, and associating with masters of the craft) is the time-honored way to develop maturity and mastery. Pieces of the apprenticeship model won’t be enough. The most obvious failure point is the dearth of trustworthy mentors able and willing to bring apprentices along.
My recommendations for creating a larger pool of mentors:
- Provide training and coaching in how to have coaching and mentoring conversations. They’re less difficult than some imagine; there are landmines which some don’t recognize. Stop assuming people know how to do this kind of work with others.
- Create a pathway to foster makers of apprentice-makers
- Celebrate your “Ben Franklins” – those with decades more experience and perspective
- Reward people for sharing stories about their mistakes and lessons learned
- Intentionally hire people with pastoral and counseling experience in their background, not as their primary role, but as a powerful complement to their other competencies. These men and women are unsurprised about human foibles and ever optimistic about human potential.
Optimize for maturity and professional growth (skills, behaviors). Why maturity? Because immaturity and pride are at the root of nearly all our worst behaviors, including self-sabotage.
What does professionalism look like? My list:
- Be truthful. Always be honest, with appropriate candor.
- Keep promises. Keep confidences.
- Be on time and respect the time of others.
- Criticize and challenge ideas & interpretations, not people.
- Express appreciation.
- Assume the best of others rather than the worst.
- Own your results.
- Work hard with your strengths; work cooperatively with those having complementary strengths.
- Be prepared. Excuses are lies we tell ourselves.
- Play the long game.
- Expect much from other professionals, and even more from yourself.
This whole process will take time and sustained energy. Choosing this path requires leadership courage because this is crock-pot work for organizations rather than microwave, and frankly out of step with some popular approaches. You will see early signs of progress, and the right people will respond well to the initiative.
