Business Operations

By Mike Leigh

Executive Summary:

Who in your organization is responsible for employee engagement and culture?

Human resources managers are change agents

If you are a regular reader of my column, by now you know that I often write about employee engagement, leadership, and culture. We’ve all seen the difference between a productive, motivated and engaged team member, and one that isn’t. Or the difference between a collaborative and supportive culture and one that is competitive and divisive.

Every organization I work with wants to improve their culture. But rarely do I see someone who owns it. Leaders are expected to be motivators and to develop strong cultural norms and behaviors, but few companies measure, track, and set goals to improve culture. That is where HR should come in.

Human Resources professionals are normally employed to conduct transactional activities (recruiting, staffing, payroll and benefits, discipline, etc.) These activities are important and necessary, but HR teams can and should do more. HR should own a company’s culture.

Business and operational leaders need to ensure HR is “at the table” for key strategic and operations discussions. HR professionals should be asked to measure engagement and culture, and to take proactive initiatives to improve them.

Likewise, if you are an HR professional, you need to proactively look for ways to support the staff to help improve engagement and culture. Too often, operational leaders look to HR as a department that only asks for “stuff” that slows them down (annual appraisals, documentation, timecard reviews etc.)

HR professionals can play a central role in driving improvements in culture and employee engagement by fulfilling three important roles:

• Champion – HR should be the culture change agents. At every opportunity, HR should communicate the need to improve culture. • Coach – HR should spend as much time as possible talking with and coaching supervisors and managers on how to exhibit those behaviors that are necessary for positive culture change. • Consultant – HR should be measuring and monitoring attitudes, behaviors, and culture. Ideally, they can also establish some key performance indicators (KPIs) and measure return on investment (ROI) of improvement efforts.

Many years ago, I received a master’s degree in HR Management. I’ve learned that HR is an important and rewarding career, but only when they can help make a real difference in organizational outcomes. When business leaders utilize and ask HR to drive operational improvements by changing culture, and when HR professionals step up and own it, higher levels of performance are reached - and cultures improve.

Send your questions or comments to Mike@ OpXSolutionsllc.com