CEO’s and operating executives are rarely experts on workplace issues. (HBR July-Aug 2015)

Does the C-suite know what good looks like?

One of the million dollar questions in every business is whether the CEO and the senior management team know what good looks like. Because if they don’t how will they set standards and manage upwards to achieve better results? To compete? To grow? To survive..

There will be some areas of the business that they will feel more confident about doing this.

Product development

Customer service

Finances and financial performance

IT systems and core infrastructure

Marketing and PR 

But often it is the area of people management, HR, recruitment, the workers, the workforce and the future of work that they will feel less sure about. 

In the Harvard Business Review, July-August 2015 edition, Peter Cappelli wrote about “Why we love to hate HR…and what HR can do about it” and observed that “CEO’s and operating executives are rarely experts on workplace issues”.

Many companies say to us that what they have in their HR function is OK or fine or adequate. Many HR professionals talk to us privately about clear areas that could be improved and express frustration that the business doesn’t agree.

In the above mentioned HBR article Cappelli mentioned a Head of HR at a leading corporation who had survived lots of restructurings and was asked about the key to his success. His response was “I do whatever the CEO wants”.

Depending on how it is managed, HR can become a function more adept at being defensive than inspiring.  HR professionals go into survival mode and don’t energetically tackle key issues that need their drive. Issues around culture, investment in cutting edge technology, the changing face of the workforce, identifying the workers of tomorrow and ditching the employment practices of yesteryear.

Appraisals are a fine example of an HR practice that we’d say most HR professionals know doesn’t work. Can you imagine colleagues in Marketing or Finance persevering with such a practice? Especially if it cost huge amounts of time and money and critically, damaged their internal brand?

Individuals go into HR because they have vision, insight, energy and enthusiasm about the workplace and people practices. Many have transformational skills in the areas of coaching, recruitment, listening and reflecting that the business they work in doesn’t notice or value.

It is the job of any CEO to make sure they nurture and develop their HR team and if they need external support to help update and inform them about what good looks like then that is a clear priority. The one thing the C-suite will be united on is the importance of people, innovation and competitive advantage.

Often the HR department is the last place they look for such skills or they are responsible for an HR function that is pared down to the bone, dramatically under invested in compared to other functions (that they understand better) or focusing on the wrong priorities.

Making that re-connection between HR and the business. Helping develop business cases for progress and change. Re energising that relationship. Running workshops for the C-suite and HR to define what good looks like. Helping create a plan. Being part of that is what gets us out of bed every morning. 

See our website for more detail about the following services:

CEO Whisperer        HR Bootcamp           HR Development