What must HR do to improve its efficiency?

While most people were preparing for a romantic Valentine’s Day celebration on February 14 2017, I headed out early in the morning to the Radisson Blu hotel located in the Victoria Island business district of Lagos, Nigeria. Joel Omeike, CEO of P4PE Consulting Limited had invited me to speak at the 2017 P4PE HR Landscape Outlook Round table on the topic: Service Excellence! What HR Must Do To Improve its Efficiency. 

I addressed the topic from the context of five roles I have played over the past twenty years:

a.      Sales team manager requiring professional people management advice and support from HR early in my career

b.     Regional training and development professional supporting employee growth and skill development across the South of England from Bermondsey to Brighton.

c.     HR Centre of Excellence practitioner providing specialist talent advice and analytics to HR users and senior business managers

d.     HR Operations Manager providing strategic advice and support to functional operations directors and line managers

e.      CEO of a business membership organisation demanding strategic and operational advice from HR

Service has been defined as: - “The performance of work for another” OR “taking action to create value for someone else”.  Excellence has been defined as: - the quality of being outstanding or extremely good. My preferred description of Service Excellence is the one that defines it as: Treating customers with a friendly attitude and trying to resolve their problem or question as efficiently as possible. I fully subscribe to the school of thought that professes that Service Excellence is a mindset that goes beyond customer service. It is the ability to meet or exceed customer service needs and expectations and provide excellent service in a direct or indirect manner. 

There are many uncomplimentary perceptions of HR, particularly by internal stakeholders

?     Seen as the enemy that creates extra work for operations staff

?     Seen as an inefficient unit with too many support staff that do not come in contact with the customer

?     Perceived to be out of touch and lacking in understanding what it takes to take care of the customer.

Against this background, HR professionals must strive to reduce the negative attributes often associated with their function and look for ways to add value to the units that make up the organization. A lot of these perceptions have been falsely developed based on the myth that anyone can deliver HR responsibilities. The reality is that to succeed and be respected, HR professionals must master both theory and practice. Some of us don’t make the extra effort required to strike this sensitive balance.

Why does HR Service Excellence fail? I believe that some accidental job holders in HR:

a)     Lack the passion to deliver excellence

b)     Operate at sub-optimal proficiency level

c)     Lack understanding of key HR principles

d)    See HR as a job, and not a professional calling

e)     Lack understanding of how HR drives business strategy

f)      Lack confidence to engage senior business executives.

 We can effectively improve the work environment, employee performance and client experience if we employ service excellence ethics. HR delivery is more than a job. We must live the corporate vision and bring the mission statement to life. Business objectives that drive corporate profitability must become of key interest to aspiring and current HR practitioners. We should create the culture, lay the foundation for sustainability and show consistency in delivery. These suggestions will only be possible if you have HR Leadership that:

• Focuses the entire organization on supporting the frontline
• Fosters a strong service culture with passion for service and productivity
• Drives values that inspires, energizes and guides frontline service providers

 Take the case of Singapore Airlines, a company that has consistently won awards for best airline in the world. Joseph Pillay, the company’s first chairman, instilled a customer-first company culture. Achieving HR Excellence is at the heart of the airline. The airline insists on hiring the right people because they realise that taking on the wrong people will quickly turn into a liability. There is an intensive 15-week training for new cabin crew – the longest and/most comprehensive in the airline industry - to ensure they become true service champions. Crew members are grouped into ‘wards’ consisting of about 180 crew, led by a ‘ward-leader’ acting as counsellor to create esprit de corps. Employees are empowered to use discretionary efforts for sustaining quality service. To encourage appropriate service behaviour, the reward excellence evaluation system assess crew member’s grooming, passenger handling capabilities, product knowledge, safety knowledge and working relationship with team mates.

Jeff Bezos of Amazon once said that Amazon "see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It's our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better." Is this the philosophy that is operated in your HR team?

To achieve customer service excellence in HR delivery, we need to be focused on:

a.      Providing proactive and visionary leadership

b.     Delivering Effective People Strategy

c.      Creating a Performance Focused Workplace

d.     Building Progressive Relations

e.      Championing Flexible and inspiring Work Environment

f.      Creating a Learning and Innovative Organization

 We need to provide a professional service that delivers the highest service quality and value for less. We are the ones to champion a dynamic work environment that promotes innovation, learning and results.  This must start with attracting, recruiting and retaining passionate people who take pride in making a difference for those they serve.

There is an ancient Chinese proverb which says: “A man without a smiling face must not open a shop”. I would like to conclude by saying “If you don’t have passion for HR, find something else to do”  Victor Banjo (2018)