TLNT, an online HR business publication, published a white paper this week entitled “5 Ways to Drive Performance in Your Workplace“. They open the piece with these three statements:
- Experts say that strategic thinking will soon be HR’s top contribution
- Analytics and big data analysis will be critical skills for HR leaders
- HR devotes less than 15% of its time to being a strategic business partner.
My first thought after reading this opening page was “this is déjà vu.” Those of us who have spent any time in Human Resources have been here before, going back to the work of David Ulrich in 1998 and others. Given that papers are still be written on this topic noting statistics like the ones above, it looks as though HR does not yet have it right.
HR still must drive business results through people; however the recommendations that the TLNT authors make are focused more on the emotional intelligence skills than I have seen before. This focus is appropriate given the changing workforce, the way in which we work and the pace of change.
I recommend that you read the whitepaper and make your own judgments. In the meantime, here are 3 overarching concepts and examples from the paper that stood out to me.
Connection – In each of the five recommendations to drive workforce performance, the whitepaper focuses on connecting with people. The first recommendation sites better listening as the way to a better workforce. It describes in detail what real listening looks like and how the power of being heard, without a mobile device or other distraction, creates strong connections and more confident employees.
Another, more provocative suggestion that relies on connection is that you treat your best people unequally. In other words, you treat your best people differently than you treat other employees. This approach requires knowing them, what is important to them, what their greatest strengths are, and how you can engage them with others and the organization.
Collaboration – With reference to Linda Hill’s HBR article, the white paper suggests that collaboration happens when leaders “lead from behind.” This involves setting a clear vision and putting the right team together to create the next great idea. Collaboration also encourages team members to voice opinions to facilitate bringing the best products and services to market.
Innovation – Innovation grows out of connection and collaboration. The whitepaper suggests that you allow your best to “tinker” and work on things that interest them (while maintaining their normal job requirements, of course). Not only might this tinkering leverage what the employee is best at, it may result in a valuable new idea and connect the employee even more strongly to the company.
The final recommendation in the article is that organizations create an environment that encourages and expects employees to talk to their manager when they are considering leaving the organization. This conversation allows an employee and manager to work together to see if there is a way to retain the employee in a more satisfying role. This approach to employee retention certainly relies on strong connection, collaboration and innovation.
The spirit of this paper seems very different than those written early in my career about HR as a strategic business partner. Given how the work environment has changed over the last 20 years, this change makes sense. What hasn’t changed is the ultimate question facing HR: ““How are our people performing, and what impact does that have on the bottom line?” With strong emotional intelligence driving connection, collaboration and innovation, I believe HR will make the strategic business contribution that their organizations are demanding.
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