Google this: “What is Good HR?” A conservative estimate of how many people are in fact looking for an answer to this question is in the thousands. Companies, Universities, and Professionals engulfing CEOs, Line Managers, HR Practitioners, Academic Researchers, and many others are eager to find the right answer. By the same token, you would most probably find the same number of people who are willing to give you an answer. Experts, Practitioners, and – I dare say – Amateurs have all kinds of answers to ‘What is Good HR’, but whose answer is correct?
Digging into the HR Management world today puts us in front of an open field of ideas and opposing ideas, arguments and counter arguments, stories and hoaxes that dazzles any expert in the field, let alone CEOs and Line Managers. There is so much rattle and hum around the topic of Human Resources that you can hear it resonating all over the Globe from East to West and in reverse.
Countless theories, models, measurements, applications, softwares, and other outside the box ideas that – and with all due respect to their Value – create a jam in the minds of Business and HR Professionals making confused about what best fits their companies. Add to that a congestion of Consultants, Advisors, Head Hunters, Recruiters, Trainers, Speakers, Gurus, Coaches, Mentors, Researchers and Thinkers who all are racing to tell you what is wrong with your Business and why their recipe will cure you! I have seen more and more Business people drawing a connotation between Consulting and Bad News in the past few years than 10 to 15 years ago; which unfortunately is not true.
All HR Professionals and service providers – regardless of their specialization – are definitely not bad news. It is not true that companies only seek consultants because they are in trouble; on the contrary, Businesses seek Consultants because they are challenged, and Challenge could be associated with the need to remedy a problem, in as much as it might be associated with an Expansion Plan that requires profound Expert advice.
Still, what continues to matter for us is the answer to the original question. To me, it is very simple: when in doubt, go back to basics. Regardless of the Theory you believe in, or the HR Management Model you implement, or the Assessment Center tools you use, or the Interview techniques you employ, or the Talent Management System you utilize, or the Salary Structure and Grades Scale you benchmark against; regardless of all of that, what is most important to know is: Are all these tools getting you what you want? Are you getting your Good HR? And anyways, what is Good HR, at the end of the day?
Back to basics; Good HR means Good People for your Company. It is an Organization-Individual fit that makes magic if you add all the other good ingredients. For sure Good HR is not Common Sense, but it could be close to that. Keep it simple at the beginning, and then make as much complex as you want; in either case, what Good HR is:
– A good Business Leadership that can attract a Good HR Owner
– A Good HR Owner who understands, contributes and can consequently translate the Company’s Strategy into good People Management practice along with a sufficient and technically capable team
– A comprehensive end-to-end People Strategy – NOT a patched one – that creates the good Employer Brand to attract the fit talent, hires best fit people, puts in place fit policies that enables the best fit Performance Conducive Culture, secures the best fit people management systems that retain, maintain, and grow the capacity of Performing People, and above all, continuously aligning this People Strategy with the overall Business one.
Working with this framework in mind makes Good HR as simple as it can be. Going onward, choose whatever theory, model, consultant, or system, I can almost guarantee that they will all work.