General principles to qualify as HR Best practice

We witness a lot of HR best practices but are they really best or it is just a peanut butter approach, where we copy/paste a practice from a particular book, organization or a well-known HR Guru and apply it to our organization without any due diligence. In this light it is essential that we understand what qualifies to be an HR Best practice. Here is a list of 5 General principles that makes a practice a Best Practice:

• They have an integrated theme "What the company is known for"
• They leverage a system of HR practices by focusing on two or three key strategic initiatives that promote the integrative theme.
• They use discipline and follow-through to achieve the integrative theme and its HR focus.
• Line managers are accountable for HR management as a key piece of total business management.
• The HR function has added value that is credible and understood by both line and HR Management

While an organization uses bench-marking as a technique they should do a litmus test of the HR practices through above principles.

*Courtesy: Human Resource Champions-Dave Ulrich