HR has an expertise problem to fix

When you have a headache, do you consult a top physician for advice? Or do you simply pop a pill and hope that it will cure the headache? What if the headache persists? That might make even the most reluctant seek expert advice. The physician has the ability to segregate the symptom (the headache) from the cause. The physician may suggest that you take a trip to the optician if he believes that your headache is caused due to poor eyesight. The expert can diagnose the difference between a tension headache, migraine, a cluster headache and more.

The sign of an expert is the ability to recognize nuances and draw inferences and connections that are not obvious. Most lab tests specify the range of parameters being tested. The doctors are able to diagnose problems by connecting data points that are beyond the ken of the layperson.

What can you do better than me?

The doctor’s assistant can with years of observation of the master, learn to prescribe a few medicines. They may even be effective in treating the symptoms, but it is only the expert who has the ability to diagnose. That is the same problem that affects Human Resources (HR). People outside of HR truly believe that there is very little that HR does that they cannot do just as well, themselves.

Can the CFO pick up an employee and put him or her in charge of Finance or Taxation or Audit... Pick up any employee and they will be able to do some part of the job of the HR department. Any role that can be done without deep study of a body of knowledge and years of expertise is in need of a relook. Much of HR (in most organizations) is in urgent need of depth and expertise.

Most start up founders will hire a CFO or a legal advisor in the early days. When it comes to HR, they truly believe that they can do it themselves. Payroll software can be bought off the shelf. The first few hires need to be hand-picked by the founding team. So why bother having an HR person? Because hiring is probably the most important aspect of building an organization and it needs expertise. A wrong hire can leave a permanent scar in the culture. HR needs to demonstrate (repeatedly) that they are better at predicting which candidate will be more successful. Their track record of success must be better than what anybody else can do.

Hiring is not about asking “clever” questions

Designing the hiring process needs expertise. The HR leaders can build their expertise by matching work samples, tests of general cognitive ability to supplement the findings in the interviews to build a data bank that can be used to benchmark the candidate and assess if the person will be above average compared to the existing employees. Tests that describe the personality elements like conscientiousness, people sensitivity etc can be great predictors of performance and culture fit. HR needs to leverage technology to augment their skills.

While anyone can ask questions during the interview, being able to draw inferences from the responses, beyond the obvious, are signs of expertise. Poor performance of the new hire may be a sign that the leaders need to build skills in hiring. Building expertise in hiring takes time. Learning and development, rewards management etc are all functions where expertise makes all the difference. If HR can manage their analytics on a spreadsheet, and not using AI in their decisions, they are probably not able to provide predictive insights.

The problem may be elsewhere...

If you believe that your organization’s HR team is terrible, take a closer look at your people managers. When good news has to be conveyed to an employee, the manager will let the employee know how much he (or she) had to fight HR to get the decision through. The same manager will never take responsibility of a poor performance rating or layoff. The manager ensures that the employee knows that the villain is HR. If HR in your organization lacks credibility, take a hard look at the people-managers.

If the employees believe that HR is the villain (not incompetent) then it is time to build strong leaders who understand the rationale behind policies and own the decisions about their own team. How often does the C-suite make efforts to learn about HR. The best partnerships are between equals.

The real value of HR

Organizations naively believe that collaboration and team-working can be improved by taking everyone through a training program. Collaboration and team effectiveness are a by-product of a complex set of variables that include organization structure, reward systems, leadership styles etc.

The real role of HR lies in shaping the culture of the organization, finding ways to attract and develop top talent and to be a futurist for the organization. Being able to design the right experience is the real value of the function. That needs expertise. HR needs to understand how choices and incentives can be crafted to leverage the potential of the employees. HR in turn must have the depth of expertise to be able to shape these intangible parameters.

The digital world is going to put the employee at the center of the organization. HR has a leading role to play. Time to build expertise in HR and to build awareness among the leaders about the value proposition of the function.

Does HR in your organization have an expertise problem? Is it still viewed as a job that just about anyone can do? Why else would so many HR people still worry about not having a "seat at the table"?

?I would love to know what you think. Thanks for leaving your comments.

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A modified version of this article appeared in the print edition of Mint newspaper dated Jan 10, 2017