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 One
of the key roles HR has to play is to put in place
the right mechanisms to develop and manage talent.
Jane Saunders of Orion Partners, a leading HR transformation
consultancy, has seen a disappointing lack of evidence
that HR practices what it preaches.
Organisations will differ, but the HR objectives
will remain the same with the need to:
- Ensure the organisation has the right
people in the right jobs at the right time
- Enable high performing employees to progress
- Provide career paths that mean staff
can identify and pursue opportunities that meet
both their needs and those of the business
- Ensure that key posts are always filled
and there is an identified successor
- Develop future leaders
Unfortunately, the HR function’s success at
doing this for other parts of the organisation is
not often mirrored in what they do for themselves.
“I’m afraid the old cobbler’s shoes
analogy rings true and there is a distinct lack of
focus on career planning for HR itself,” Saunders
comments. “This is particularly concerning given
the nature of some of the more fundamental structural
changes occurring within the function. Recent years
have seen an increasingly common move to consolidate
transactional HR activities in either in-house or
outsourced shared services arrangements. This will
typically be accompanied by the development of specialist
centres of expertise, and see a smaller number of
business facing HR staff working with senior managers
in Business Partner roles. This has been effective
in aligning activities to roles and moved away from
the concept of the HR generalist as potentially a
‘jack of all trades, master of none’.
However, splitting out activity in this way has also
had the effect of potentially fragmenting the traditional
career path that HR professionals took to acquire
the skills and experience they needed to grow.”
Career Pathing
Saunders says her firm has done extensive work to
help clients reconnect their HR career paths. ”Too
often the shared services organisation is seen as
the shed where the admin gets done rather than the
delivery engine of HR where individuals can acquire
and build the skills they need in a number of key
areas. Roles in shared services can provide a great
foundation in the technical HR disciplines as well
as giving individuals the opportunity to develop broader
customer services, people and process management skills.
In some key roles in shared services this can also
be where people get detailed exposure to technology
and project management - which can be great skills
to use both inside and outside the HR function.
“The Business Partner role can be seen as the
glamorous job in HR as it’s closer to the business.
This role is much more about translating the needs
of the business into solutions that have a real business
impact and is less about the more technical aspects
of HR. Acquiring the business knowledge needed to
be effective may sometimes mean that a stint outside
the HR function in a line role will be beneficial.
However, in our experience you also need a core foundation
of technical HR expertise, as this will be one of
the key elements that gives you credibility with the
business. The question then becomes how do organisations
grow these skills if there is not a structured way
in which individuals can move from one part of the
function to another.”
For Saunders, the key messages are two-fold:
- If organisations are to retain the talent they
need in HR, they must have clear career paths with
a structured approach to developing skills and capabilities.
This means both within the distinct parts of the
HR function and across its different disciplines.
- If individuals want to build meaningful careers,
they need to think flexibly about how they acquire
the right skills – this may well mean moving
around the model and breaking away from the traditional
paths
If you want to know more about Orion Partners’
work in this area – please contact janesaunders@orionpartners.co.uk
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