HR Management for Leaders

Developing talent is one of the most important things a leader needs to do; however there is a general myth in lots of large organizations that all matters relating to HR management are taken care of by the HR department. So where do you draw the line? What should the leader do and what should the leader leave to the HR department? Without going into the finer details of everything that might be in the scope of work for an HR professional, Peter Cappelli addresses this question in an article entitled “HR for Neophytes” (Harvard Business Review, October 2013). In particular he focuses on five questions leaders might ask regarding HR management in order to help develop talent.

Here’s a summary of HR Management for Leaders followed by further reflections (et alors):

HR Management for Leaders

Whilst the following five “emerging best practices” may be very familiar to HR professionals, not all leaders are aware of them. The five points can be considered as follows:

1.       What are our talent needs?

Performance problems do not spring from individual failure. Research indicates that the quality of peoples’ work depends “in a large part on context, including the systems and support around them.”

Put the employees in the right job with the right boss (including moving them away from you if you are not right for them). Provide the necessary systems and support!

2.       How should we meet our talent needs?

Buy, borrow or build. Buying might be costly and bypassing internal candidates may demotivate others. Borrowing (contractors or secondees) is mainly a short term solution.

The ‘essence’ of talent development is building talent for the long-term. It enormously improves employee engagement and if they leave they will leave on good terms and might come back later!

3.       How can we do a better job of hiring?

Leaders are often delighted by a high number of applications for a post; but actually less is more. Target a small pool of high-quality applicants by listing very stringent requirements for the job.

Unless you are hiring a lot, leave the process to someone else. This is a part of talent development that is best handed back to the HR professionals.

4.       How can we develop internal talent?

Learning by doing is what the leader can best provide for the talent. Otherwise known as “on the job training,” this focuses on exposure and experience (rather than education).

Whilst increasing your workload today, investing long-term in your talent will “limit the number the employees who are disengaged because they don’t see those jobs as leading to a better future.”

5.       How can we manage employees’ career paths?

The internal offer has to be better than the external offer and this comes down to opportunities. As a leader you both create and find opportunities for talent both in- and outside your team.

This is where leadership and talent development come together: focusing on future growth rather than current performance, accelerating innovation, and managing change all lead to opportunities.

Et alors

The administrative part of HR should be left to the professionals (compensation and benefits, payroll, union relations etc); however in the other “half” of HR, “Learning and Development”, the leader has a very important role to play. Education (or “training”) can be taken care of by the HR professionals but otherwise talent needs to be developed by leaders and the above points are very succinct and concise way of focusing on development by experience and exposure.

Cappelli’s ideal hints at what is already anticipated with the arrival of the sense-of-purpose-focused, low-loyalty and project-driven “generation Y” in the workforce, namely that even “industrial” organisations will have to adopt the same development model as professional services companies. Those companies invest a lot of time in the development of their talent and yet they know that most of them will leave; however there are two key factors: 1/ Most of the development is “on the job” so there is not a lot of “lost” direct investment when talent does leave; and 2/ The only way to have good talent in the long term is to encourage them to leave but to do so on good terms and have the alumni both as ambassadors for the company and as potential “new-hires” for the future!