Oh, let us count the ways! Some common negative HR mantras include; “HR is only about the people”, “HR is afraid of the numbers”, “HR doesn’t understand the numbers”.
If these negative mantras prevail, HR Professionals will not be perceived as credible business leaders.
This brief article re-iterates the critical importance of why HR Professionals must fully understand the businesses in which they are engaged. By living and understanding the businesses needs and goals, the HR Professional is able to bring the human element into the numbers equation – that’s right, HR needs to bring the human element into the business numbers, not the other way around.
It is HR’s role to provide the link between organizational profits and its people.
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The more we are able to live and speak in the language of the business, the more imperative the role of HR becomes to the leaders influencing the business.
Why is it HR’s job to influence those who influence the organization? Because, when the mantel of HR Professional is assumed, also, is the responsibility for all of the humans in the organization.
Let’s not be tentative about HR’s role in running the business. HR is not just a business partner, they are business leaders. Rather than keeping up the myth that HR has to find a seat at the numbers driven corporate business table, it will be time for the organizational units to start earning a place at the HR driven corporate business table.
As HR Professionals, we need to ask ourselves the following questions:
- Am I speaking the language of the business so that I am understood?
- How am I presenting my knowledge of the business in my everyday practice?
- Do I understand who my organizational Human Resources customers are?
- Where is the evidence that what we do in Human Resources shows a clear path to the appropriate business function?
Discussion Questions:
- Why is the perception that, Human Resources is just about the people, still prevalent?
- What will I bring to the business table to enhance the quality of work-life for all employees?
- What is my understanding of organizational business units?
- What was the perception of the HR department in places where I have worked previously?
- How do I, as an HR professional, want to be perceived by employees and organizational business leaders?