|
Page - 1
It is time for Human Resources practitioners to rethink their role and that of the HR department, not only for the purposes of contributing to the organization's bottomline, but also for their own survival. HR continues to balance the demands of several different roles: business partner, internal consultant, operational and administrative expert and both employee and employer advocate.
This may sound like business as usual, roles that aren't likely to create a mad rush of HR people arming themselves for the future.
In reality, however, they are new. Although the questions may be the same, the answers most assuredly are not. The ongoing challenge is to establish new deliverables and to sustain strong partnerships with both internal and external customers. The ability to see the big picture - and to deploy the resources to address the big picture - will be more important than ever.
First, you need to ask yourself some important questions: -
Do you know what your HR department's reputation is among the employees? When HR is mentioned, do managers picture savvy strategists, backward bureaucrats, or pleasant, people-pleasers?
Do employees understand and appreciate the importance of the HR department in furthering the organization's mission and objectives?
Does the HR department make an effort to market its services to the organization? If it does not, then it has the reputation it deserves.
HR Department Reputation & Brand
The key is to open up conversations with all levels of employees, and present yourself in the role of facilitator instead of enforcer. You have to get out of the HR office and into the world of your organization's employees. Finding these answers requires dialogue, which means that HR must communicate. That communication must consist of equal parts of listening and promotion.
First, HR must listen carefully to what its customers need. Then it must promote what it has done and can do. HR staff must educate the organization about its capabilities and potential contributions. No one knows your capabilities as well as you do.
Employees, for the most part, still see HR as 'those people who handle benefits and do interviewing'. To position the HR function for the next decades, every HR practitioner needs to take on a public relations role - starting with your own employees. Think of yourself as a product and do some smart marketing.
Next
* Contributed by: -
Lalith Kumar Vemali,
B.E. (Electrical & Electronics) from St. Theressa Institute of Engineering & Technology, Vizianagaram, A.P.,
Currently pursuing PGDBA Programme from ICFAI Business School, Bangalore.
|
E-mail this Article