Understanding Your Company

Why the role of an HR head is not just a “nice to have” differentiator but is often a “make or break” parameter for the Genx organisations

My husband was running an IT company in the 90s as a first time CEO. One of the interesting decisions he took was to move his HR manager to a field role as the Regional Manager heading sales and support operations in a region. I had seen line managers move to HR roles in companies like Wipro but this was the first time I had seen it happen the other way round. What a foolhardy move was my first reaction. How could an HR person manage a sales force, face customers and handle operations? It is not in their DNA! And why? Why risk pulling your revenues down and losing a good HR manager? My husband had a very convincing and interesting rational for his quirky move. He said he wanted an HR head who understood his business first hand. Someone who had been in the trenches and knew what the challenges were. Otherwise he felt that HR strategies would be driven by theory and would fail. 

Over the next decade as I watch the Indian economy evolve into a predominantly services economy I feel that there is an urgent need for this approach to become more of a norm and less of an anomaly. A services based economy rests on people especially knowledge workers. In such an economy the role that HR plays is often very different from a capital intensive production driven economy. Here the HR professional is expected to be a business partner working closely with the line managers. The organisation depends on them to plan, source, train and retain a high end talent pool with a pipeline of leaders. This is not just a “nice to have” differentiator but is often a “make or break” parameter for the Genx organisations. Why does an Accenture still command a premium pricing in the high end IT consulting business? It is the distinct quality of its people and the expertise it has built by leveraging such a workforce. And the pivot for building such an organization rests on HR. How does HR equip itself to play such a pivotal role effectively? Currently, we still follow the old model where we ‘train’, educate HR executives in Labor institutes and Social Work Schools and land them straight into HR roles from Day 1. They are expected to rise through the ranks to reach the lofty position where they will be drawing up the people strategy for the company. This without ever spending a day in any role which would expose them to the real guts of the business. No wonder then that most CEOs prefer to move their best line managers to the strategic HR roles instead! So, we see a lot of movement especially at the top from operations to HR but very few instances of the reverse.

This may also be because of the reluctance of HR professionals to move out of their comfort zone and get into frontline roles. And why take such risks when you can go up nevertheless? But the point which is missed is that as they move up the ladder their lack of hands-on experience is a real handicap which leads to most critical HR decisions being taken by the CEO himself. In a world where new generation companies like Google and Apple succeed purely on the strength of their innovation, HR folks are under tremendous pressure to deliver a workforce that is miles ahead of competition. This when they have to compete globally for talent! They have the difficult job of then keeping them motivated by giving them an environment that will enthuse their creativity.

An HR professional who has had the chance to be one of them or has directly managed such a team instantly gets it and can quickly figure out what will make them tick. Is there any reason to hesitate then about the need for HR to not just wet their toes but to deep dive into the pool, when the stakes are so high? By the way the HR manager as the Regional Manager proved to be a great success in my husband's company proving once again that a good professional can do well in multiple roles. It is imperative that we give them that opportunity and not put them in silos with no escape route. This is no altruism but self-interest as great HR folks will not happen unless we give them the right exposure to business. Guess what? Facebook, the social networking site, has a VP(HR) whose last stint was with eBay as head of marketing, advertising, brand management and consumer promotions!

 

Reinventing HR - Is HR in India ready to march to the new beat?

The 21st century has brought more changes, more rapidly in the way businesses work in India — Growth rates are vaulting higher and higher; competition has moved from local to national to international; more companies are started by first time entrepreneurs than ever before; non-traditional and international investors like VCs and PEs have settled down to stay; cross Border M&As have become a big part of growth.

Unlike the 1990s when IT and ITeS set the trend, today these changes encompass all sectors. We are in the midst of a structural tsunami which is sweeping across all organisations — big and small, old and new, family owned and MNC. And more than any other function, HR is right in the eye of the storm.

At this juncture one wonders: Is the role of HR just to bring talent on-board and retain it? What about coaching, mentoring and moulding the talent base? Should the “best employer” tag continue to be linked to something innocuous like the efficiency of bus pick-ups? Shouldn’t the employee judge the organization on the learning and growth opportunities provided? Isn’t it time that Indian companies got a more mature workforce - A workforce, which understands and aligns itself to business goals and is not looking at the employer/HR to play the “surrogate parent” role?

More importantly, post Satyam, India looks to HR professionals to build a culture of transparency to promote the concept of whistle blowing. It is not about having policies in binders but about educating employees on how to find their voice when they observe something amiss. Is HR listening?

The expectation, the criticality of the role and the difference it can make to an organisation today has zoomed HR to the “C” suite with more and more companies going for a Chief People Officer who can help them build a next gen organisation — an organisation which is more global, more inclusive, more diverse, puts a premium on productivity at all levels, has a deep pool of leadership talent and which embraces CSR as a part of business. For, that is what Indian companies need to be today to survive and thrive.

However, as with all transitions this goal is a highly ambitious one. Companies and business leaders have realised the need and are ready to move. Are the HR professionals ready to skill up and execute on this new vision? Such a magnitude of change demands that senior HR professionals move their focus from operational issues to strategic issues and take on the challenge of “people creation” rather than “people relations”.

The change needs to happen across the entire HR spectrum. The HR executive of yesterday thrived on playing a proactive direct role in managing people. He was right there in the front, the “Goto” person for employees with problems. He had the responsibility to hire people, fire people and move them across as required.

Today’s HR person needs to move 180 degrees to a more facilitating role. He needs to support the line managers as they don the operational role of HR — providing them inputs, coaching them and helping them as a neutral observer to take the right people decisions. But finally he defers to the decisions of the line managers and makes sure that they understand that the buck stops with them.

Freed of the day–to–day operational transactions, the new-gen HR person’s work day will change dramatically — He works with the Board and CEO to build a leadership band for the organization; he works with the Board to put in assessment parameters for the CEO and his leadership team; he nudges, prods and moves the CEO to work on a succession plan; he builds and implements the process for leadership recruitment; he draws the framework for how the organization should look in the next three, five and ten years. How to build the right advisory board, how to increase diversity in the ranks, how to move towards being a more inclusive organisation representing all castes, creed and nationality? These are the issues which will occupy his mind and time.

What one sees around in India is that HR professionals are yet to catch up. Progressive CEOs have stepped into the breach and are playing an active HR role. Obviously this cannot be sustained for long, as some exigency or the other would take their attention away.

So, the need of the hour is to create a band of future ready HR professionals. One quick fix solution, which has worked in the past both here and abroad, is to move line executives to HR roles. With their experience in the executive team they easily wear the strategy cap and thereby set the tone for the successors.

Another highly effective intervention is to put HR teams through Executive Management programmes giving them a good perspective on running a business in its entirety.

But, the more sustainable solution lies in bringing a fundamental shift right at the root — in the MBA curriculum to churn out HR folks who will come with the changed mind-set ready for the new world.

HR in India – A reality check

Change and fluctuations in Indian dynamics is the only thing constant in the present scenario. With a decade into the 21st century, all we can see is more changes, more rapidly in the way businesses work in India. For so long, HR in India has played a critical role, as Indian businesses and industry has leaped across the rate of growth post liberalisation and post the dawn of the internet era. 

A predominant reason why this will continue is the nature of the Indian society as compared to the Western societies. In US and Europe, when children move to high school they are pushed to become independent. By the time they finish their undergraduate degree and get ready to enter the corporate world they are emotionally mature, take their own decisions and have often started living independently. Whereas in India, children live under the protection of parents and perhaps even grandparents well into their 30s. When they enter the workforce after graduation, it is almost the first time that they are stepping out of their homes, interacting with people at a professional level and are suddenly expected to take decisions which may have significant impact. It is not easy! And HR in India has performed a crucial role in bridging this gap and mentoring the rank and file employees to fulfill the role they were expected to perform. The last decade pretty much sucked all HR resources into this activity; preparing the young workforce, managing them, slowly transitioning them into the corporate world. 

Today, HR has become the pulse point of any organisation, as human capital is that which can make or break a company. Especially in a country like India, where human capital is the most abundant, what then is or should be the place for an HR manager in the system of any concern. 

What happens to the well being of the employee? What about coaching, mentoring and moulding the talent base? What about honing into a more mature workforce - A workforce, which understands and aligns itself to business goals and is not looking at the employer/HR to play the “surrogate parent” role? What does the HR do to make an employee grow, which is directly proportional to the growth of the company itself? 

This decade demands more attention to issues which are only now entering the radar screen. First and foremost among them is actively building leadership talent. This requires a strong grasp of business goals, competency mapping at the top and then being able to identify the gaps which need to be filled either through internal training or through lateral hiring. 

More than all this HR needs to intervene to ensure that the organisational mindset is prepared to accept, welcome and absorb senior executives when they are brought on-board. Indian companies and businesses have always preferred internal training to lateral hiring. There is a certain unwillingness to acknowledge that perhaps there are people outside who are significantly better equipped to perform certain roles as the company grows. This is even true when it comes to cross-border hiring as the organisation is unprepared and unknowing about managing the new interpersonal dynamics. 

Perhaps the need of the hour is to foster more innovation and entrepreneurial spirit in our talented human capital so that we can break free from the need to build such large organisations to creating highly productive smaller entities. That is going to be a huge challenge for HR which has now got used to thinking big numbers and driving incremental productivity.

Life after 50...

There is something about turning 50 which changes your career perspective. Often the truth hits that you have reached the plateau and you can only see more of the same in the next decade. Or you have been quietly left behind in the pyramid stakes. And you finally accept that your impact even within your company is more illusionary than real. This is also the point when Money doesn’t motivate you anymore. 24*7, 9 to 9 jobs have lost their appeal.

But the energy levels are still very high. You still have atleast twenty years of productive life ahead of you and you have truckloads of experience which you know could be very valuable to the right folks. And unlike the earlier generation there is no pre-decided “retirement” age.

So what are the options? How do you make the best of your final leg of working life? How do you balance your work life better while continuing to pursue your career? What should be your priority?

There are folks who have moved to teaching. But teaching may not be everybody’s cup of tea. Then there are the usual suspects the NGO’s –could be exciting but to figure out which one would leverage your skills is not easy.

In the recent past new options have been thrown up especially in India thanks to the changing landscape of the economy. There are many more new ventures started by first gen entrepreneurs who often are in their 30’s. The Governments both at the center and at states are seeking corporate skills actively for strategizing and implementing large programs.

So now there is opportunity to participate in the next phase of growth by perhaps getting onto Advisory Boards of start-ups. Here again the challenge is to find ventures where your wavelength and the founder/investor wavelength matches. Where you can see a good fit in terms of skills you bring and the gap in the team. Where there is a genuine desire to take “advise” and act on it.

Government jobs are harder to come by unless you have built a network within the babudom already. But you can always start to build them now and perhaps wait for them to mature and get you on the radar for the right opportunities.

The good thing is the numbers of options have increased but the challenge still is one of awareness and accessibility!!

Beyond the "C" suite

India is full of “Country Heads” - a designation and role which implies that you have climbed the career summit if you wish to stay in India. Yes there are always bigger brand names, bigger companies but it is still more of the same. But what happens if you have reached there in your 30’s and early 40’s! How long would you do this?

The way to beat this perhaps is by moving away from MNC’s to domestic companies with global aspirations, the Indian MNC’s as they say. But then many of them are family owned and driven with distinct cultures sometimes very “foreign” to even the non-NRIs! Try to see if you can spot the few that are in a mood to transform and have sown the seeds by taking external funding from PEs. Definitely worth giving a shot. But be prepared to fail for it is a learning for them and for you. So often enough the first change may not work. It prepares you well for the next one for you now know what to expect and how to navigate in the new milieu.

Another great option which in India we loath to try are start-ups. They are the future big companies, atleast some of them. And you won’t know which one till you have tried a few. A start-up demands and expects a paradigm shift in your mind set. Be prepared to unlearn and relearn entirely. What worked for you in a big company will fail to fly in a start-up. So first lesson – Go with an open mind and be humble about what you bring to the table. A start-up cannot and should not pay “market” salary especially not the MNC salary for it would show poor management if it offered to do so. Again if you do what you sign up to do you might hit the jackpot in terms of upside. Best thing to do is to wear the investor hat and pick the salary figure. Give up the past. That is the only way you can get started in your new journey.
Don’t micro analyze role and job descriptions. start-ups are like chameleons. They will change constantly and you might end up typically doing something way beyond what you signed up for. That also means hierarchies; designations have no meaning in this new world. Do you have it in you to give up a lot of your ego, roll up your sleeves and do everything from A to Z? Then jump on to the start-up band wagon sooner rather than later. Remember Steve Ballmer dropped out of a Stanford MBA program to join Microsoft in 1980 when it hardly had 25 employees!

Finally if you have hung around too long and are in no mood to venture in to another career stint, how about taking up an advisory role? The Indian growth story is dominated by youngsters who have made it big be it Sunil Mittal who started Bharti in his 30’s or and they all seek executive expertise from outside as they grow. But again here you will not straight away walk into a successful enterprise – it will be unknown and unheralded when it seeks you. So it is up to you to identify the diamond in the rough. Of course there is still a big part on how to structure such an engagement to make it meaningful and worthwhile which I will talk about another time…..