The HR manager as CEO

A PROFIT CENTER OR A COST CENTER?

In most businesses, every department or group has a designation as a #costcenter or a #profitcenter. A department designated as a cost center is a department that produces #costs and does not contribute to #profitability . A profit center on the other hand is a department whose activities contribute primarily to business revenue and profitability. One of such departments considered as cost centers are #accounting and #humanresources . A department considered as a profit center is the #marketing department.

Modern business trends with increase in use of metrics like Key Performance Indices (#KPIs) realigns this notion (when well implemented) as it sees every part of an organization as a profit center because every part contributes directly or indirectly to the business revenue generation ability and or to its #cashflow which both backs profitability and ensures the continuous existence of the business.

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HUMAN CAPITAL MANAGEMENT vs. HUMAN RESOURCES MANANGEMENT.

In implementing KPIs many roles are redefined, removed, or realigned. For example, this is why some companies redefine their human resource department as Human Capital Management (#HCM or #HCD) and define the role as a strategic one and not just as a cost center (#humanresourcemanagement ).

This has also evolved into micro-specializations like Talent Management, Learning and Development (L&D), Employee experience department, People management, etc. and these roles now see #HR specialists growing to having a board position.

We have moved from the #industrial age to the knowledge and information age. This is a time when most repetitive and social jobs will be taken over by robots (already happening in many professions like #law, #construction, accounting, #recruitment, even #policing ) and the main jobs will be intuitive ones like making final decisions when all the data/information is provided but human nature needs to be considered.

This is the rise of the human specialist or the human capital expert. I see many HR experts taking up leadership roles like becoming the CEO or MD to run businesses because it takes them to effectively run the business.

My question now is if you are a HR person, are you ready for the future, have you evolved your job from a basic cost center role to a strategic role that gives you a place at the table? Do you just worry about keeping every vacant position filled with quality staff or do you now see yourself as the one running the organization through the people you manage?

If you see yourself now through the people you manage, do you know you now run the company indirectly? Are you working at weaving yourself into the fabric of the organization to ensure its success into the future with you at the front?

What is your understanding of and contribution to the company’s strategic outlook?

How do you see the company waving through the economic challenges with you as the captain? You are never the captain until you make yourself the captain in your mind. Once you settle being the captain in your head, you begin to act it and even if your current company does not notice and respond accordingly, a better company outside will notice and act positively on it.

HR is no longer a “woman’s job” but now a job for #strategists and #leaders. Presently, it takes a very experienced talent manager to effectively manage a #genZ employee not to mention the Alpha generation employee. But that is not changing anytime soon, what will happen is more of that will come, so we need human capital experts more than ever before. #Outsourcing will be the order of the day as we work in a #cocreation and #cowork world, HR to the rescue!

As business automation thrives and increases in modern day business, the people manager must create a balance between the people and the systems (which is why the role of Change Manager, which is a HR role is on the rise).

I am an experienced management consultant, but I am now a human capital expert first before being considered a management expert. Coinbox limited that I run as the CEO thrives on HR and human capital services and most of them evolve from management consulting activities.

The world is empty without the human factor, more people and businesses need to start looking at HR as key to business long term success and deserving of a seat at the table.

At #CoinboxLimited, we practice #strategicHR, that is we do not just provide you a staff because you request for it, we try to understand you and your system as an organization and why you feel you need that employee so we can advise accordingly in light with the evolving world economic systems. Sometimes, you do not need to fire a poorly performing employee, all you need is to retool or retrain them and their productivity shoots up more than five (5) times. If you hire a competent L&D officer who is good at training needs analysis (#TNA), job enrichment, and job assessments, staff productivity will shoot up and business profitability is guaranteed.

It’s time you engage your HR more as a business, and if you don’t have one, its time to hire or outsource one. Coinbox Limited can help with any of these.

I wish you optimal business productivity and an awesome day.

Ayo Emakhiomhe.