HR is Dead. Long live HR!

We have a complex, a complex best avoided. A series of HR conferences explore the unending question of the relevance, nay survival, of HR. Attended by HR professionals, it then degenerates into another chest beating season. I see the pattern unchanged for decades now and it gets me to wonder why this agenda remains. Much of it is misplaced, if not completely incorrect. Every function and discipline needs to get better but no function has been more sinned against than sinning. A lot of it is to do with the "fall guy" syndrome for HR, a professional hazard. Even more with the ignorance of organizational leadership of its true potential and role. No other function has the onerous challenge of the doorman to the Chairman having a point of view of view about it. It has to battle all these and yet use the same stakeholders to execute its agenda. The time has come not to throw away some evergreen fundamentals and re-skill but to up-skill. The moment is here for others to see its as it must be seen , than see it from one's own myopic eyes.

Every organisation gets the HR it deserves: A lot of the quality of HR in an organization is reflective of how evolved its organisational leadership is. What you expect from your HR team is all that you will get. Simple Pygmalion Effect reality. If you expect it to be purely routine, do not crib that it is not giving you strategic value. Companies that have been progressive in its HR thinking are the ones whose leadership legitimately have believed that people count. The investment of time, money and HR talent depends on that. While as a trend, we do see an upward climbing slope, reflective of the growing criticality of the people agenda to corporate success, there are firms still which believe it to be a cost of an inescapable administrative burden. If you invest peanuts, why should you expect the moon from HR?

HR is not the function, it is the organisation: Very often, many of the so called HR gaps - inadequate talent bench strength, poor succession planning, low employee engagement, insipid employer brand- are not something the HR function alone can be beaten up for. I have not seen many line leaders leverage their operating catchment to bring talent to their areas. Why? Not many want to play along to take a difficult people call or have a critical conversation. It is easy to make HR the fall guy but the reality is that the line is also as much HR. While HR must take responsibility for poor design, the quality of its deployment is clearly a line remit. Does it play its role right and in full? Eventually employee experience is a line mandate. It is not about creating alibis or reflective of escapism. It is the bitter truth.

HR must understand everything as well as everyone else: There is no argument that HR must understand the business context and its value drivers. Without that there cannot be an appropriate HR solution. However, to expect HR to be a surrogate for every other function is neither needed nor should be expected. Organisations should worry if every function must become like every other function. The people agenda is a delicate one. Analytics and data are surely needed but not every relevant intervention must have an instant mathematical equation. The focus should be more on the downstream solutions, not just the paranoia for Analytics. HR will always have elements of fuzziness. It is in the nature of human existence and organization behaviour. Just because many functional leaders cannot comprehend the grey in it, it does not become any less significant. The issues remain even more critical because people issues do not lend themselves to the same exactness that most leadership teams prefer to deal with. HR has a delicate arbiter role to play and it must, without trying to more loyal than the king. Otherwise, the baby will be thrown out with the bath water.

Invest in your HR function: While there is a huge opportunity to improve HR capability across levels in many organisations to equip them with many contemporary skills - coaching, facilitation, OD, change management and others- firms must rotate HR professionals through some other functions and businesses. Done in early years, such experiences are powerful signals to building a complete HR function. It builds perspective and contextual appreciation. I know of more than a few HR people who went beyond, including those who built careers in sales, marketing, legal and strategy. Likewise, every high potential, being spotted for general management roles, must do a stint in HR. It will build in them the necessary people acumen and the ability to live with grey, apart from appreciating the challenging context of HR. I have brought in doctors, sales guys, research scientists into HR, some chose to make careers into HR, others grew in their skill sets even as they moved into other functions. Such experiences make HR get insights that are powerful but not accusatory, enriching the capacity of HR to become more value adding.

Risk eliminating HR : The best way to check what HR's role to an organization is to dissolve the function completely for six months. You sure can and must outsource the administrative tasks. You can also outsource the strategic thinking to a consulting firm. If you are better off, you have saved huge costs and eliminated much of the rancour. But should you miss HR, it may have have already set you back significantly. Likewise, evolved organisations look forward to HR partnership and advice to build more effective organisation structures, improve collaboration & teamwork and help coach individuals for fulfilling their latent potential. This, by itself, can more than pay for the cost of HR. But then, is that measurement by itself adding value?

It is not to absolve HR of its own failings. Maybe the HR leadership historically has failed the function. Maybe it has allowed the function and the agenda to be treated like a door mat. Maybe it has allowed its own inadequacies to come in the way of a true upliftment of the function. But the moment has come. Never ever has the people agenda been more centre stage. It is not about making it become another function like Finance and Sales for that will be most short sighted. It is for allowing it its own unique place in an organization's environment, tough yet soft, impactful yet subtle.

Many companies have scaled up substantially. Talent has been acquired. Newer catchments defined. Many bright people have been spotted early and groomed to be leaders of corporations. Cultures have been nurtured to promote meritocracy, engagement and change. Businesses have been transformed. Mergers and integrations successfully completed. People friendly brands have been created and marketed. Costs have been navigated to ensure sustainability if businesses. None of this would have happened without HR.

The problem is not with HR alone. The problem is with us, as employees and leaders. We have taken it for granted. We have thought in terms of "Us" and "Them". Cherish your HR. You are indeed part of it, irrespective of what you do in an organization. Redefine HR. You are as much it. HR may die but long live HR !

( Prabir Jha tweets on Leadership, Careers, Organisation Culture & Transformation. You could follow him @prabirjha)