HR basically means management of Human Resources. The function is relevant based on the value of this resources in the organization vis-a vis other resources. In a SME organization run by family with number of Senior employees from the family & family friends, HR may become an unnecessary function to spend money.The business vision is closely guarded secret amongst very few in the family. Any HR system for hiring, managing ,developing & retaining becomes superfluous in such companies. Owner & the owner’s family divide the core business responsibilities among themselves excepting in the function where statutorily certain positions with specified skills are mandatory &if these skills are not available within the family , e.g.CFO, Company Secretary etc.
The importance of people as resource is being felt even in such SME companies when the company starts growing. The pressure to outperform is felt to sustain the growth. This is the time the owners need to decide the business strategy & set the milestone ,motivate the team to achieve the targets. This is when HR specialization to help in facilitating the effective utilization of the human resources becomes critical.
The science has taught us that when a rocket is moving at a high speed ,if the acceleration of it goes beyond the acceleration due to gravity of the earth it will escape the earth’s gravitational force. One of the critical measure that determine the company’s standing in business & professional world is its gravitational force, in other words, how attractive it is for employment.
The growth demands necessity of attracting & retaining talents who are capable to outperform which is the primary requisite for a company to grow dynamically. This is when the owners driven company needs the HR function as facilitator. HR based management culture needs to replace the owner driven family culture. A change/transformation is essential for the company on a growth mode and that only comes with the employees owning it up along with the owners. If changes are attempted without buying in from the employees it does not end up as a success story.Such attempt normally results in Increase in stress levels or lack of calmness within the company also reflects the company’s downward trajectory.
The indicators are:-
- A high imbalance of workload amongst the employees specially at mid management level.
- Lack of clarity of roles & responsibilities
- Mismatch of competency profile between job & employee on the job
- Even if there is apparent error s in decisions made by the owners management lower down avoids pointing out with constructive criticism.
- Since the owner , either for the business becoming bigger or lack of time & absence of proper reporting system , can not oversee the performance of the next level effectively there is a tendency to keep more than one person on the same assignment to keep a check. This results in conflict in place of collaboration and the overall performance suffers.
Creating a culture of change is a challenge for such organisation . An effective HR function is needed to take over the role of a “change agent”. The role of HR manager would be to look alter human capability or organizational systems to achieve a higher degree of output. Role of an HR manager as a successful change agent in such organization is to facilitate owners to have business leaders who can anticipate change, analyze the environment, act decisively and collaboratively, and affirm the value of positive change.
Change needs ownership. In order to develop change in the organization and groom/attract business leaders, HR managers need to be equally involved in business activities as any other department in the organization. HR managers today need to be strategic partners to the business in successful organizations rather than perceived as mere custodian of discipline & administration which earn them the reputation of a “villain” in the organisation.
Understand the change before jumping into it. As change agents, HR managers need to be perceptive, intuitive, and reflective—as well as intelligent to be effective. When bringing about any change in the organization, it is expected to encounter resistance. As change agents, HR managers can anticipate the level of resistance for any kind of change and having expertise in Organisational Behavior (OB), they can formulate framework to bring about change with minimum resistance. The HR manager needs to constantly monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the framework in bringing about acceptance to change. Several organizations acknowledge major cause of failure to bring about change is lack of understanding of the power of the collective human system to obstruct the progress of initiatives in an organisation.
To change the individual , Organisation needs to change. In absence of organizational change management, organization as a whole may find mere sustenance of existence difficult. Change in organisations covers a vast field of business activity, generally aimed at improving performance and productivity through growth, innovation and skills development; through shifts in assets, resources or market shares, or a combination of more changes. HR managers can look to bring about change in the organizational structure by Lewin’s three steps of organizational change: unfreeze, change, and refreeze. Unfreezing is related to creating willingness and motivation for change through anticipating the future and analyzing the possibilities of change, change means seeing things differently and acting to move toward a more desired state, and refreezing establishes new ways to affirm the change and secure the new desired structure.HR modulates the behaviour of the persons by developing the congenial work environment ,based on Lewin’s equation of B=f(P,E) where B stands for Behavior, P for Person & E stands for Environment.
Nothing succeeds like success For any organization looking to bring about culture of change, Human Resources Department is best placed to bring in employee management, engagement, motivation and commitment. Hence, HR managers have the strategic ability to be the change agent for successful organizations by incorporating change in its own functioning, developing change leaders in organization, anticipating resistance, planning accordingly to develop sustainable change culture and bringing in change in organizational structure. This is critical to change the perception that HR function is more an evil than necessity.
Article by : Tarit Kumar Bhaumik
Head-HR
Nevaeh Technology Pvt Limited