Contest — What is the ONE single most important thing that leads to success in HR? Enter Now!
We are running a contest to find the best answer to the question…
What is the ONE single most important thing that leads to success in HR?
Yes, we know HR success is a combination and integration of multiple things. But give us your point of view on the ONE key that triggers all other things? Post your answer HERE (and to justify it – include 2 or more reasons why your answer is the single most important thing). The winner will be selected on July 25 and will get a free copy of the Unwritten HR Rules when it is released…and one other SECRET PRIZE that will be revealed later. Scroll down to view all the current answers.
Good luck and let the contest begin! -Alan
Believe in Employee.
Influencing your management team is the single most important thing.
You won’t be able to accomplish anything worthwhile that will help you succeed in HR if you can’t sell or influence your management team or persuade them to your point of view.
In HR, if you are just doing only what you’re being asked to do, you won’t be successful. That’s just not enough. Your have to know what new, innovative programs and initiatives best fit the culture of your organizaton (and what old programs should be dropped) and be able to get your company to support them. That’s what it takes to be successful.
Success in HR is based upon being able to adapt and adjust daily to different and everchanging cultures and able to still achive short and long range goals.
The key that triggers all other things for success in HR is a sense of humor! We have to be the ones willing to look and learn from the past and inspire the future. We lead change from within and have to laugh at the lessons learned as both successes and opportunities.
Irrespective of the various efforts, at the heart of all this is ‘people’. Be it any organization: a government enterprise, a financial institute, a manufacturing unit an outsourced IT firm, a hospital or even an NGO, at the core is people. This is where the HR perspective comes and the role of HR becomes compelling as never before.
HR philosophy has to be based on the idea that every single employee is (a) ‘sacred being’, and (b) central to the prosperity of its business. If this were the philosophy, then the chief aim of Human Resources Development would be to inculcate holistically, the spirit of humanness in the organization and align it to the business objective.
Some might say that such statements are ‘politically’ right; it is like playing to the galleries. However they would add that these thoughts are utopian. Ultimately, the business of business is business and top lines and the bottom lines should be the objectives.
Let us agree for a while that these arguments have substance. The revenues or the profits are like the air we breathe. Without breathing we would die. But, is the aim of our life, only breathing? It is with this perspective; it is reiterated that every employee is central to the prosperity or the success of the organization.
There has to be a grand balance between the employees and the customer; or let us say people and business
To Conclude: What is the ONE single most important thing that leads to success in HR?
The one single most important thing is the belief and the commitment is to inculcate holistically, the spirit of humanness in the organization and align it to the business objective.
The perspective and reasons are:
1. Employees are sacred and central to the prosperity of the business and
2. At the same time there has to be a grand balance between the employees and the customer; or let us say people and business
The single quality that an HR professional must possessed and demonstrate is “Proactive Affability”. It does mean that I should be there before you need me.
Reasons:
1. While HR professional practices this, he / she assures the internal customers (people and management) to focus on their functional areas for which they are appointed. It applies while dealing with people in the organization, management, external associates etc. The credibility of HR goes up multifold.
2.The realization on the part of HR professional always makes him / her to think proactively and come out with measures rather than waiting indefinitely for things to happened on its own. The theme could be extended to HR strategy till execution. The demonstration of the said quality on the part of HR professional facilitates positive outcome and helps avert disasters / unplesant events or after thought action in the organization.
Effective communication is the utmost important thing that leads to success not only in HR but in any function.
Trust.
First and foremost, employees and managers have to trust that you have the employee and/or company’s best interest in mind when making decisions and that you have the HR knowledge to be making these decisions.
If you do not have the Trust and ‘buy in’ nothing else will matter.
Commercial acumen – assuming that HR already has a broad generalist HR base, the one thing that will lead to HR’s success is commercial acumen – which provides a practitioner with the ability to understand the challenges and direction of the business, the responsibilities and backgrounds of employees and management, and wins the respect of the management team when HR initiatives and strategies are aligned with organisational goals. Commercial acumen helps build stronger business partnerships and ensures that HR practises do not obstruct business objectives. When HR then needs to challenge the business, business leaders will pay more attention and value HR’s opinion more.
Resilience.
Main Entry: re·sil·ience
Pronunciation: \ri-ˈzil-yən(t)s\
Function: noun
Date: 1824
1 : the capability of a strained body to recover its size and shape after deformation caused especially by compressive stress
2 : an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change
Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/resilience
Why?
a.) There is only ever one reason why: Because change is the only constant among people and in business (i.e. human resources).
b.) Because upon a foundation of resilience all of the other ideal charateristics/ requirements that lead to success in HR can be, built, trained, found, learned, developed, coached, bartered, achieved, hired, purchased, or otherwise acquired as needed.
3T – Trust, Transparency & Togetherness. This is the single most agenda for any HR professional! This will align function to business, create credibility and enhance functional excellence.
All good answers- I would almost agree with resilience (my HR manager quipped “sanity” when I asked her). I would pose though that the answer to the questions hinges onthe definition of “success”. I beleive many of these answers are our various versions of “success” – which is why it is difficult not to agree with them.
I would say though that none of these will matter or be possible without the ability to forge authentic, strong relationships. There is no influence, trust, togetherness (and resilience will not matter) if you cannot build strong bonds with people.
I am not referring to socializing or comraderie but an ability to get present and in the world of another person- be it executive, employee or the person you are terminating. With out this you can not be effective let alone successful- and I would define success as “all of the above”.
The correlation of human capital performance to increasing revenue and profits.
BUSINESS THINKING! How can we be “strategic partner” to a business we do not understand? How could we sell our ideas to line managers if we do not speak their language? Of course, we need to know HR tools and models and best-practice examples etc.; but in order to know which one to apply (or what combination), we need to know and undersand the business and its needs. So, speak the language of business and then get down to HR business.
Flexibility.
In any given day, an HR Executive is expected to perform a range of duties at a high level. The scope of a day can include relating to individual employees on a personal level when discussing sensitive information, to delivering a dynamic presentation to the executive team- and everything in between.
Loving and respecting the people in your organization so much that you expect them to reach their full potential.
This done by setting people up for success by aligning their talents with meaningful assignements that help them grow as well as prosper the organization.
Obviously there is a lot of needs assessment and talent development work in this scenario and without the right mindset from the top managers, this nurturing atmosphere would not exist….so the HR Professionals must allways lead the charge for having a productive, challenging and nurturing environment in the workplace.
Courage.
Courage to lead.
Courage to fail.
Courage to be authentic.
Courage of conviction.
Courage of heart.
Courage of mind.
Courage in voice.
Courage in silence.
Courage is vital in HR. We must have it in abundance. We must share ours with others when their stores are low.
Without courage, we cannot truly succeed.
For Success in HR
The HR should be -
For the people
By the people
and with the people..
Here people = Employees.
To me the most important thing for HR is to enable business to achieve its business aims.
This would mean being ready to be fit for purpose rather than correct; letting managers manage their people rather than HR being in control; being a trusted advisor rather than a policy interpreter or exception provider; maintaining focus on ethics, principles and values rather than procedures.
To deeply know and to be able to implement effective policies and actions to ensure that the vast majority of people, whatever their role is in an organisation:
KNOW all the basics of their job and their impact in other’s jobs
CAN satisfactorily perform in their job in the most effective way
WANT to voluntarily adhere to accomplish the Company’s goals
‘Business Orientation’-
all HR strategies / practices mean nothing if they are not aligned with the overall busines needs.The main building blocks of HR namely organization building, capability building, system building and culture building should ultimately converge towards the common goal of achieving organization objective.
Trust and credibility. I consider these two things to be so closely linked as to be one. If people (management AND employees) find you trustworthy AND credible, you are 90% on your way to an outstanding career in HR.
I strongly believe that Effective Leadership leads to success in HR. HR plays a very important role in an organizations` success & growth and an effective leader is the one who is able to optimise the human capital for organization`s success. He inspires followers and has a clear, consistent, big vision.
He motivates and inspires the human resources and thus engages people’s passion for a better tomorrow . This is what in turn fosters business success.
The most important thing which will lead to success is ‘LEARNING’ (Continuous Learning)
I think “aligning business objectives with HR objectives is big concnern for corporates.
Now a days contribution of all is required in terms of acheiving business objectives for eg. Head HR in insurnace and infrastructure needs to support fully in business.
The most important factor which leads to success in HR is simply the ability to forcefully communicate the “W.I.I.F.M.” to all of your internal and external clients.
You see, there are always more than one alternative to solve a particular problem or meet a specific need. When an HR professional shapes his/her response in terms of the client’s objectives, something almost magical occurs: the client becomes extremely receptive to your proposal.
Some real-life examples of this phenomena:
1. Making the “business case” for diversity initiatives to your executive management group that helps to establish the employer brand,
2. Recommending other alternatives that lower legal risk to terminating or laying off employees,
3. Proposing a new training program to the upper management, and then championing the advantages of the process to first-line supervisors,
4. Tying your annual HR initiatives to the institution’s executive objectives,
5. Recruiting “A Players” to join your HR organization, or
6. Showing the ROI of a new Talent Management process that includes talent reviews, high-potential development & follow through, succession planning, performance management, and workforce planning.
The bottom line in HR’s success is its ability to influence its clients. And the only sure-fire method of influencing these clients is to frame each and every HR proposal in terms of the client’s “Whats In It For Me” concept.
If you can master this competency, your proverbial “seat at the table” is assured.
HR’s success can be determined by its ability to impact employee engagement by effectively using HR tools and leading and managing change thereby adding value to the business and its stakeholders.
Success of HR depends on its credibility and ability to add value to the business in all HR touch points and transform HR into a profit centre by partnering business in truest sense.
Being knowledgeable about the benefits and legal aspects and having an open door policy for employees.
To partner with your clients (business). HR must know the business and the employees they are supporting and create strong relationships. This is where “great inter-personal skilss” come handy.
Empathy is very important and one must bring humanness into the organisation culture,thats when the feel of working for organisation augments in the minds of employees
Ethical Leadership
The “skillset” most critical to HR success is “business connectivity. “Connectivity” occurs when you have a deep understanding of the business mission and are proactive with great ideas regarding highly effective people strategies to help the business outperform its objectives.
All the knowledge in the world about products, services, policies, regulation, etc. will mean nothing if there isn’t a fundamental understanding about what the business needs. Further, if you are only seen as “the HR person implementing” and not as a business person bringing creatives ideas on how innovate and nurture leadership, you don’t earn the much needed seat at the table.
To be a BUSINESS professional with a SPECIALITY in HR verses an HR professional.
To be able to make each person you come in contact with feel they are the most important person you deal with.
This approach empowers and inspires people which can unleash innovation and and excellence thus propelling the organization forward through employee engagement.
What’s the number one thing for being successful in HR? A sense of humor.
Sure, having business knowledge is important, but if you don’t survive with some shred of sanity, then all of the ‘head-smarts’ won’t do you a single bit of good.
In multiple discussions with dozens of HR professionals, they have all agreed that being able to laugh (whether at yourself or a situation) is one of the keys to longevity.
If you’re a robot spouting information about the business, but every employee prefers to talk with the other HR staff who DO have a personality and sense of humor, then how successful will you be in the long run?
Great question, Alan!
Don’t listen to Ben Eubanks! (Smile.) A sense of humor is important, and I’ve got one and I’m not afraid to use it!
But I think the most important thing in HR is being able to see both the forest and the trees.
To know that without the trees, there is no forest. To make all decisions based on the health and continued growth of the whole forest, while seeing and adressing the needs of each tree. Tending the environment, planting, pruning, fertilizing, cutting out deadwood.
Credibility
[...] your opinion on the ONE key skill that is more important than all others? Post your answer HERE and say why. See if others agree. C’mon join in the [...]