Seize the day

It’s a great time to be an HR professional, if you’re up for the challenge. Jackie Lloyd, CFInstD, President of the Institute of Directors, shares her thoughts.

While the pace of change and complexity of today’s business environment can be daunting, there are opportunities for HR professionals who want to make a positive difference.

I would argue that we are in the midst of the most significant opportunity in history for HR professionals to influence and have an impact on organisational success and the lives of their people.

This role touches on organisational culture, management skills, trust, effective leadership, sufficient resourcing, understanding how external pressures affect an organisation’s ability to deliver… and so on.

This is, of course, my highlevel view. I now work as a professional director, and taking that system-wide, sometimes long-term, perspective is my modus operandi.

But, for many years I was an HR professional, with an executive career as the Global Human Resources Director for the New Zealand Dairy Board and NZMP Fonterra.

When I look at the world today, I see an HR function that has dramatically expanded from when I started out. Which, of course, provides scope for a far more significant impact on the success of organisations and the wellbeing and satisfaction of their people.

What do I mean by this? Let’s start with the scope.

When I first started in HR, you joined a personnel department or worked on something called employee relations. The role was largely about supporting the ‘power people’ within the company to achieve their vision and increase returns to shareholders.

Over time, a greater understanding has emerged of how organisations actually succeed. There is a much broader recognition of the importance of balance. Organisations that have engaged workers, who rally behind a shared purpose and who can find personal success through organisational success, are taking the lead.

This shift in understanding has been happening for a while, but I think the COVID-19 pandemic helped accelerate changes in the way we think about the employer–employee relationship.

It’s all happening against the background of geopolitical tensions, climate change challenges and technological disruption, particularly artificial intelligence and quantum computing. And we are still feeling the reverberations of the global pandemic.

Well, it has changed the way we work, hasn’t it? To some extent, it’s created a whole new environment for HR teams to shine. Today, they must be the translator of the external environment to the organisational context.

They have to understand how complex global pressures influence people at all levels of their organisations. They have to find ways to help their organisations cope, and evolve, with the needs of the times.

That’s a big role. That’s not really HR and the way HR has traditionally been understood. That’s quite a substantial increase.

So, what leverage does that larger scope give the HR team?

Let’s talk about people-centric leadership. That is a core skill of the modern HR professional. They must be trusted, able communicators who can influence and support the leaders and staff in their organisations.

There is an old adage: People are the organisation, and an organisation is only as successful as its people. Nothing is truer today. Peoplecentric leadership means helping people achieve their goals and, in doing so, deliver for the organisation.

It should go without saying that employee expectations have changed. The world is changing, and there’s rapid disruption, too.

To translate and interpret what’s happening in the external commercial world, as well as the world of individuals, so it has a positive effect in the organisational context, is incredibly valuable and powerful. I’m talking about purpose, strategies, policies and more.

Business success and people success are completely interrelated. As we strive for business success, we need to recognise what success looks like for our people and make sure the two ideas are aligned.

That’s quite an opportunity for HR professionals. But it takes a certain type of person to capitalise on the opportunity.

You will:

• understand the external context and be cognisant of how that translates to the organisation and its purpose

• be a trusted leader in the organisation

• help establish and maintain the culture

• understand the levers of organisational performance, success and resilience

• understand human behaviour and the impact of societal changes on the workforce and individuals.

It’s a big list. It’s going to be quite hard. But it is an amazing opportunity to deliver value.

From my perspective, this is the most significant opportunity in history for HR professionals to influence organisational success and the lives of their people.

The last piece to consider is to never overlook the basics. You need to deliver realistic, pragmatic, supportive HR advice, policies and enabling systems and processes.

Technology that helps you understand your people will become increasingly important. So keep an eye on the artificial intelligence landscape. We will likely have access to greater data, which will give managers and staff more tools to make better decisions. The employee voice should be heard, understood and appropriate action taken.

But watch out. One of the things I noticed in the past is that HR people can be inwardly focused. In today’s business environment, you need to also look outward. The days of the old-school practitioner are long gone.

To deliver on the promise of the new HR, be a curious, empathetic and inspiring people-focused manager. Seize the day.