recession saw companies turning to their financial leader to guide
the company, creating an inherent training ground for future
financial-sourced CEOs.
IT professionals have traveled a similar path, however, have not
quite bridged the gap outside of service companies and technologybased
organizations. The added benefit behind the rise of the chief
information officer has been the explosion of technology in business
over the past 30 years, and the lack of regulation around the
function, basically allowing entrepreneurial programmers to develop
leadership skills while creating and
marketing products of their own design.
This broader exposure to the other
functions within a business has
allowed those entrepreneurs to
take leadership positions with
companies and increase the
exposure for their particular
field.
By comparison, HR
professionals are responsible
for the effectiveness of
the largest and most important
part of any business: its
people. Each hire a company
makes is made through qualified
HR professionals. Every employee
of a company is impacted by decisions
and policies set by qualified HR professionals.
According to research, people resource costs make up approximately
44 per cent of total expenses and 36 per cent of total
revenue of an average organization, significantly higher than any
other expense line item. Getting it right in managing your people
resources is critical to having any kind of sustainable success.
In spite of this critical responsibility, HR is frequently left out
of the executive team, reporting to either the chief financial officer
or the chief operating officer in many organizations, smaller
entrepreneurial businesses in particular. Small businesses, where
owners try to do everything themselves, have the most to lose due
to poor people management choices as they are, by definition, a
small group of critical people. Having senior level assistance in the
HR area should be one of the most highly prioritized additions to
the decision-making group.
HR professionals today don’t see themselves as back-office
workers, administrators and compliance monitors. Today’s dynamic
people resource manager has been redefining the HR role
and function, renaming the top HR roles to better reflect the reality
of their training and ambitions – chief people officer, vice
president of organizational effectiveness, etc.
The HR function has developed exceptional training and support
programs, national professional organizations and clearly
articulated and marketed HR designations. While this is a helpful
step in the process, there is a further evolution required for most
HR professionals who aspire to leadership roles within organizations,
especially in smaller, growing businesses.
Senior leadership coming up through the HR function should
be described using terms like talent optimization, regulatory
navigation, leadership, advocate, analyst, strategist – partner or
executive. This operates in sharp contrast to many businesses’ current
view of the HR function described earlier and characterized
as a service provider or back office function.
HR professionals who aspire to executive roles within businesses,
in particular those led by their founders, can best improve their
chances of success using the following suggestions:
■■ Lead by example – run your department as though you are
running a service company
■■ Demonstrate commitment to the business – when costs are to
be saved, be proactive and volunteer sacrifices to improve other
areas of the business
■■ Respect the dollar – show that you value the bottom line, and
understand financial drivers
■■ Volunteer to lead cross-functional projects – further develop
your understanding of the business and demonstrate to other
functions the value of your leadership and advice
■■ Lead social interaction – let your team organize the events, you
need to be representing the business, not monitoring behaviour
■■ Develop a function skillset outside of HR – IT, accounting,
production, marketing, etc.
■■ Access the strategic planning process – you must be part of
the early planning and strategic discussions, rather than a
customer of the result of those conversations
The most successful HR executives in the country today do all
of this and more. The profession has reached a point where every
business needs to have executive participation from its HR
function, whether through an in-house resource or an external
consultant. By recognizing the expectation gap and acting on it,
HR professionals have an opportunity to not only help themselves,
but to drive the organizations for whom they work to even
greater success. n
Jeff Dawley is the chief financial officer at BridgePoint. Attend his
session at the HRPA Annual Conference, entitled “The Expectation
Gap: Who We Are, Who Others Think We Are and Who We
Should Be,” on February 2 at 10:30 a.m.
strategy
SENIOR LEADERSHIP
COMING UP THROUGH
THE HR FUNCTION
SHOULD BE DESCRIBED
USING TERMS LIKE
TALENT OPTIMIZATION,
REGULATORY NAVIGATION,
LEADERSHIP, ADVOCATE,
ANALYST, STRATEGIST…
64 ❚ SPECIAL CONFERENCE EDITION 2017 ❚ HR PROFESSIONAL