Resourcing and Talent Management – what is the role of the HR professional?
That,as they say, is a very good question. In this world of economic crisis and unpredictableweather, can we as HR professionals predict and influence the nature of the[human] resource that we are able to attract to our businesses? And then, arewe able to influence the line manager and the wider ‘organisation’ to managethe talent accordingly? Or are we as skilled in our influencing and prediction,as the current City traders or the local BBC weathercaster?
Atypical answer to this type of question, offered by the CIPD, is that it is thejob of the HR professional to – amongst other things, and my, the CIPD doesmanage to list a LOT of other things that the HR professional can hang theirhat on in order to justify their existence, but, as they say, that is anotherquestion…don’t go there – where was I, oh yes, the job of the HR professionalto mobilise a workforce.
Thejob of the HR professional, however, is not made any easier when you look atthe elements that make up such a ‘mobilisation’:
Acquiring team members – well, even though the theory that “teams meanz success” has been around for a number of years, most notably through Belbin, there is a small but growing view that teams actually do more harm than good (see Hackman, Harvard Business Review, 2009). And in addition, it is a rare line manager that has a true grasp of their key result areas for jobs and a handle of effective job design. Which leads the HR professional to spend their time trying to second-guess what the manager actually needs and wants from their resource…
Right skills, in right place, at right time – ah ha, the delights of Human Resource Planning…I can hear you nodding off just reading the words. Yet, in mobilising a well-resourced and talented workforce, this is THE first step in success; so few companies – especially in the SME sector – do this at all, either formally or informally. More so, it is a put in the ‘too difficult’ box and line managers are left to haggle with Finance about the budget for salaries, overtime and ‘temps’ (Remember them? They were part of a flexible workforce that used to exist before the Agency Worker Regs…don’t get me started on that one…)
Retaining – both those you already have and the new ones that you manage to get. And, would you believe, that even in these stringent times, there are employers reporting shortages of the right labour? Witness the statement above about not using human resource planning and identifying the labour that delivers the work with the objectives of the company. Keeping good people in a time of boom is bad enough, so why is it also happening in ‘bust’ with the addition of skills shortages?
Dismissing the ineffective – and this may be the reason; companies and the public sector have in effect ‘slashed and burned’ in order to meet [understandable] budget constraints. We still see however the poor performer not being dismissed through capability and being made redundant instead – with a package of pay that in many cases is obscene…again, don’t get me started