Improving HR | FOCUS IS THE FOCUS
Vincent Tuckwood
Coaching Personal & Professional Transformation | Improving HR | Corporate Misfits
THE BIG IDEA
One of my readers here on LinkedIn commented that I cover a lot of ground in my articles, and it was great feedback
(always a gift!)
I've lived this journey for so long that I take my thinking for granted, so it's always valuable to pause and take stock.
In this instance, I was reminded that I don't often share the framework I use for improving HR, instead diving deeper into discussion of specifics.
So, today, let's pull the camera back a bit and take a look at the wider picture.
When it comes to improving HR, I focus on 4 areas:
Everything I do, and every topic I cover, falls somewhere under this framework, so let's break the areas down.
DO THE RIGHT THINGS
This is all about focusing on the outcomes that HR delivers, which I group in 4 areas:
DO THEM WELL
This is all about how HR maximizes its impact:
MAKE IT EASY
This is all about stream-lining the experience of working with HR:
GET THINGS DONE
This is all about how HR goes about its work:
This framework may seem simple, but it truly is the distillation of decades of working in and with HR groups globally - I use it all the time!
领英推荐
TRY THIS
When I work with any new client CHRO, I start with the question:
Which worries you most right now, focus (doing the right things), capacity (doing more), or capability (can we even do it)?
And, to be frank, I don't often get a clean, simple answer!
Typically, I'll hear a little of one, a little of the other.
What I'm actually listening for isn't the answer, it's how my new client thinks about the answer.
I don't need to tell you that HR is under pressure and under fire, I don't need to tell you that most days feel like pure randomization and chaos - with maybe a little structure thrown in by the calendar.
And in this ongoing experience, it's very easy to leave improving HR to best wishes and if-we-get-to-it
(you should see some of the answers I get to the question "who do you have in charge of improving HR?")
What I'm listening for in those early discussions is focus - firstly, whether there is any focus at all on improving HR and, if there is, how tightly the challenge has been defined, because:
FOCUS IS THE FOCUS
You see, when we leave improving HR to a general sense of "we should do that..." it remains an exercise in boiling the ocean and, as a result, nothing changes, which just reinforces the spiral.
Using the 4 areas above to structure thinking, discussion and, ultimately, the work you do to improve HR is a quick way to slice through confusion and bring focus to your focus.
USE THIS
Feel free to print this out and use it as an aide memoire or, always better, as a conversation starter!
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
I usually share a quote here; not today...
Given that focus is the focus, I wanted to call out one specific bullet from the framework which I believe is woefully underestimated (and so taken for granted):
Build the key skillset of INFLUENCING throughout the HR organization
Notice the key word here is BUILD - not "hire in" nor "wait until it appears" nor "luck out" - and very few, if any, HR functions I've worked with have a strategy, framework or plan to build this critical skillset, even though it is at the core of everything we do.
So, in the spirit of bringing focus to the focus, how will you build influencing throughout your HR organization?
Excellent post—many thanks Vincent!