Is it about time the 'H' in HR rises above the 'R'?

As a student of Human Resources or Human Capital, I have always attempted to take a ring side view and mixed the same with a 30,000 ft. thinking to observe how the function is evolving. Needless to mention that there is a selfish motive behind the same i.e to keep myself current on the function.

For many years now, I have noticed that the balance between the H and the R is in disarray as the HR professionals have joined the race to get an emphatic seat on the table and join the band wagon of desk thumping( often chest pumping) executives. Not sure the origin of the same but the simple premium on being 'aligned' with business has had far higher returns for the profession as against striking the balance, to which the function owes its relevance. Thus stakeholder feedback for many a HR professionals have become the biggest yardstick to measure their impact

HR profession and the professionals have a delicate task of balancing between the needs of the enterprise and that of the employees. This act of walking the tight rope, can nudge any incumbent to start looking for 'support' from either party and that starts setting up a dangerous precedent.

The recent pandemic to my firm belief, will trigger and necessitate the need to amplify the H in HR because never before have we faced a human crisis of this nature. The teams today are looking at the HR profession for the following:-

Hope- In the absence of any immediate resolution to the pandemic and no one having an answer to when will we see light beyond this mist, the employees and management have a hope that the HR professionals will keep the policy and benefits aligned to the need of the hour, they will help find out methods and avenues to help the employees keep their families safe. Employees today look towards their HR functional with a fervent appeal and a hope within that their organisations will stand-up and support them.

Human Face- In a virtual world which is new for many of us, the virtual manager as an entity is still trying to find its feet, the ubiquitous engagement philosophies have been thrown out of the window as no one seems to know the answer to whether or not managerial effectiveness is relevant in a virtual set-up. The only singular connection that every one is banking on is the human face of HR function to solve for one and many alike. These are not the times for hierarchy specific provision, every life is important and every emotion needs to be respected and the thread of organisation preserved. Every single transaction need to have human face and a human resonance to it.

Holistic existence- There was a time when we used to bring our 'whole self' to work, now is the time that work is a part of our holistic existence. We may argue between integration or balance, of work and life, but work and your office has seeped into your life and there is no check-out date for this unwelcome stay. This interesting phenomenon is making every HR professional scratch their heads to figure out how do we craft organizational processes that cater to the workplace in the holistic existence of an employee. Compliance norms need to evolve, work place norms needs to be thought through, the ways of working need a fresh lease.

From some of us telecommute, to now a situation where only few of us may work from office, its a paradigm shift for HR professionals and the only way they can rise above this by placing the H at the core of their thinking for the moment

One may wonder, that what is so special in dialing up the H component. Its not so simple, it will come at the cost of the R that has taken the front row for a while, you may need to put certain Rs to the backseat.

Resource utilization - you know what, let the resource management, productivity norms, performance management be the domain of the people and business leaders. Let it go, its neither your job nor your expertise as HR professionals to define productivity norms, aggressively work towards looking at what resources need to be deployed and what need to be withdrawn. Your business acumen as much its appreciated, is not going to get you any brownie points in the absence of the Human components listed above.

Return on investments- For all your financial prowess, this is not the time for you to start thinking of investments on your intervention. In fact you may need all of your influencing ability reserves to nudge your business leaders in a pro-human investments and reap benefits at a much later stage. It needs to start from you- because you are the only one that can find a balance. You need to take the center stage in defining what investments and interventions must be deployed without using the ROI filter.

Relative Benchmarking- Oh! the new found love of our social media and publicity savvy HR professionals. Rarely, could you scroll down the LinkedIn or any other social media feed, without the HR professionals or the companies, chest thumping about their 'fresh' and 'innovative' people policies. Even in the midst of a rare global phenomenon like this pandemic, we are busy feeding the information to the world, trying to displace one another from the innovation throne or 'pro-employees' throne. It almost seems a competition about who is the first to the market! Dial it down, conserve your energies and focus on caring for your employees rather than talking about those.

The only R that you need to focus on right now is Rapport with each other in these times of mental wellness crisis. Be there now, be available for your colleagues, your employees, your leaders and your team members. Your Resilient ambition of becoming the best can take a pause and let only the Resilience standout.

For the fresh and the old HR professionals, its a once in life time event and neither of us would wish for this to happen again. Its Humbling and it has the ability to shake up your organizational cultural thread. Find opportunity to keep the Humility and Culture shaping together as you pave your way through the next few months/years.

P.S: This may seem like a sermon, but hey, those are important too! So keep it simple, keep it Human.