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Building HR Competencies |
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| Why you, too, should become a credible activist |
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Written by Michael Zroback and April Boyington Wall
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Wednesday, 30 January 2008 |
When seasoned HR manager David (not his real name) took over three years ago as HR manager for a company struggling with discontented staff, he found himself at the head of an organization hungry for change, guidance and recognition.
After a year or so of working to heal a rift within the HR department, as well as between HR and the rest of the company, the company’s director had reluctantly dismissed David’s predecessor. During the previous manager’s tenure, the HR department had become alienated from the staff and management, and relations with the union were tense.
The dismissed manager had refused to share information about the collective agreement with the rest of the HR department, so payroll and benefit administrators worked in the dark. Basic things like the calculation of holiday pay were done wrong, or at least not in accordance with the collective agreement. When dealing with people issues, other managers would circumvent the HR department and go directly to the company director instead.
David was hired as an experienced administrator and team player. But it wasn’t until he attended a unique leadership program that he realized that most of the problem centred around the past HR manager’s lack of emotional intelligence. Instead of reaching out to people, she created a department isolated from the groups it was supposed to serve.
The leadership program revolved around six change principles to foster participant transformation. It involved skills training in areas that support becoming a “credible activist,” including emotional intelligence and critica
reflection. The training also provided a one-hour coaching session following each of the seven workshops in the program to support participants as they applied program principles in the workplace.
For David, the result of attending the program was that he learned how to name the way he had been performing his job as a HR professional. The program legitimized his approach as a credible activist in the organization and encouraged him to expand on it even further. Consequently, he raised both his profile as well as that of the HR department, which has now become an integral part of the senior management team.
What is a “credible activist?”
As the field of HR continues to evolve, the skills and expertise required to become successful in the field have also become increasingly sophisticated.
According to the 2007 Human Resource Competency Study(HRCS), the top indicator in predicting overall outstanding performance for HR professionals is the capacity to be a “credible activist.” This is the ability to be seen as both credible – respected, admired, and keeping commitments – as well as proactive – having a point of view, challenging assumptions, and taking initiative. (Visit www.shrm. org for more on the study.)
The competency of credible activist reflects a culmination of skills and expertise in five other competency areas including:
• culture and change stewards;
• talent managers/organizational designers;
• strategy architects;
• operational executors; and
• business allies.
Unfortunately, there is little research showing how the capacities currently required can be developed.
Creating profound and lasting change
Research indicates that six critical ingredients are required in any development initiative to support transformation (Wall, 2003). Each of these is necessary, but not sufficient by itself to create and sustain the type of competencies required by modern HR professionals. The six ingredients are:
1. Promote the development of vision, both of what is and what could be.
2. Offer and develop support – both emotional and structural.
3. Build knowledge and skills related to the desired change – including the capacity for reflection.
4. Work from a systems perspective with a concern for wholeness, integrity, and alignment.
5. Use stories, art, images, and ritual to support transformation.
6. Allow for the quantum factor – spirituality, ethics, luck, or synchronicity.
Why be an activist?
Most HR professionals are hired because they are subject-matter specialists who can provide expert advice when required. However, to be a star in your organization, this is simply not enough. To be seen as a key part of management, you need to bring more to the table. You need to take a stand on issues, challenge assumptions about the conventional ways of doing things, and take calculated, but smart, risks when the opportunity presents itself. You need to be both credible as an expert in your field and an activist for positive change.
For some, this might mean a significant change in the way you perform your job, while for others it might mean fine-tuning your operating style. Either way, it means a whole new way of looking at your role as a HR professional. Instead of waiting to be asked for your view on an issue, as an activist you will approach senior management with suggestions and action plans. Your approach is likely to be creative and might involve some risk but if you have done your homework your approach has a good chance of succeeding.
Benefits of being a credible activist
Approaching your work as a credible activist has many benefits both to you, as an HR professional, and to your company. Instead of sticking strictly to human resources issues, you can choose to proactively broaden your approach to include those important things that truly need to get done. Championing a crucial issue could lead to resolving a significant problem, dramatically demonstrating to the executive team that you are a leader who understands what is important to the organization, and who is capable of solving its problems and accomplishing its goals.
The credible activist’s company benefits by having a strong human resources professional’s presence on the management team. After all, most initiatives and problems in business involve people, and people are the stock-in-trade of the HR professional! Such a dynamic force can lead to significant accomplishments in a variety of areas, such as: employee/labour relations, company-wide goal alignment, multi-disciplinary and multilevel teamwork, qualitative improvements resulting from calculated risks that worked, and increased creativity and problem-solving ability.
The benefits to David’s organization for taking this approach were immediately evident. First and foremost, he sat down with the other members of the HR department and not only listened to concerns but made them privy to the collective agreement and the proper methods for handling the basic function of their jobs. He also opened up the department to the rest of the company – so much so, that now when there is an issue or discussion involving people, he is in the room.
But an activist is proactive, as well as a problem solver. So, within months ofjoining the company, he achieved a 27 per cent reduction in health-care spending by changing to a health-care provider with a cutting-edge business model. He made a 50 per cent reduction in temporary agency staff usage by streamlining the work scheduling process. He completely revised the recruiting model by working with a multi-departmental team of supervisors. David also implemented a “Best Doctors Program,” whereby an employee can access the best doctor in the world for his or her particular medical condition. Finally, he made a free 15-minute consultation available for every employee to review their individual benefits and see how much their company is paying for them on their behalf – which improved staff morale and increased employee appreciation for the company’s benefits program.
Relationships with the union had traditionally been quite difficult in David’s organization, as well as costly, both in terms of legal fees and the human resources required to deal with conflict and grievances. As a result of David’s leadership and activism, however, grievances have steadily decreased. David and the union jointly problem-solve difficulties before they get to the grievance stage. They have developed initiatives to ensure that employees feel appreciated and that the relationship between union and management continues to be respectful and efficient in dealing with organizational issues.
“Perhaps the most significant effect of becoming a credible activist was in relation to managing my relationship with the union executives,” David says. “My coach and I discussed this issue at great length in our monthly sessions and I spent many more hours reflecting on how I had handled the last meeting with them and the ways in which I could improve the next one.
“As a result, not only does the organization function more effectively, we avoided some of the enormous expenses of a poor relationship. A first step grievance can cost several hundred dollars while an arbitration can cost in excess of $5,000 a day!” he concludes.
David states, “I have always had creative ideas. However, this development program supported me and helped me refine my skills in advocating and building support for new and innovative approaches.”
Becoming a credible activist has been identified as the most significant attribute of high-performing HR professionals. This competency is a combination of other areas of expertise and reflects skills in both emotional intelligence and critical reflection.
This case study illustrates how this competency can be nurtured and refined through an approach specifically designed to include all six of the ingredients required for profound change. The HR professional increased his visibility while becoming a successful champion of change and achieving measurable improvements to the bottom line of his organization. Clearly this approach to competency development can provide real payoffs for everyone involved.
April Boyington Wall, PhD, CMC (Certified Management Consultant), is a Toronto-based management consultant specializing in customized training, coaching, change management, facilitation, and workplace mediation. For further information, visit www.wholesystems.ca.
Michael Zroback, M.A., M.Ed., is a seasoned human resources professional with experience in the nonprofit, public service, telecommunications, and manufacturing sectors. As a business partner to senior management, he combines a strategic view of the human resources function with the ability to effectively deliver the full range of practical human resources programs. He is currently the HR manager of a major non-profit agency in the GTA.
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