How The HR Leaders Can Truly Add Value to The Organization

By Ruchi Kulhari

It’s no big secret that organizations depend on their employees, stakeholders, and their customers to ensure smooth running of their business and deliver results for the organization. While every business function has a role to play, it is important to note that a company’s growth relies heavily on its workforce. But what role does Human Resources play into this. Sometimes it’s tough to show the impact HR creates to the stakeholders inside and outside a firm. As they might not really understand the value HR brings into the organization or the exact role, they play in making the organization successful.

Since organizations cannot be successful without their people, the Human Resources function focuses on helping the organization achieve its objectives through their human capital. What should HR leaders do to create synergies between external and internal stake holders to enhance a firm’s performance? The key is to create a powerful line of sight between business strategy and actual performance. The value of HR lies with the stake holders. HR leaders must align practices with the requirements of internal and external stakeholders. If the people leader develops policies and HR practices that supports the employees and the company to deliver to the customers and investors, HR has succeeded. The performance of a company is tied to the performance of its people. The HR function empowers the company by hiring the right talent and developing them along the way to meet the organization’s needs by creating an environment where the employees contribute optimally to business success.

For a CHRO to create value for HR, it is important to note that their value does not come from the policies and people management, it comes from developing and maintaining a business mindset. Over the decades HR leaders have only aspired to have a seat at the table, aligning one’s work with the company’s business strategies. But now that the HR does have a seat at the table, how do they make it count? The key lies in our comprehension of what drives the business and how can we use that knowledge to maximize our ability to meet company goals. The head of people must be fully acclimated with the market to which his firm caters to. The deliverables and strategies often reflect the demand and supply and have very little to do with policy making.

A CHRO can truly support the executives at the firm and truly be a strategic partner when they are able to bring in a competitive advantage to the firm through their people influence. The HR Leaders are in a unique position to steer the leadership behavior, the employee behavior, and the customer behavior. They bring value by fostering a collective level of commitment in its workforce and helping them to work effectively and creatively to help their organization attain a competitive advantage in the market.

One way to evaluate if the HR strategies are working is to measure it in the form of the outcome of the business. The more there is alignment between the customer expectations and the employee’s performance, the more the firm can cut into the wallet share of the customer due to this competitive advantage because of its people strategy.

This brings us to an age-old debate of whether an HR leader should be a people person or one with the sense of driving the business. This is something every HR leader struggles with at some point in their career. Do you need people on your team who are acquainted with the employment laws, nuances of the various HR functions or should you go with a person who is more of an industry expert? While every business has its own DNA and a unique style of operation, HR leaders who come with excellent HR background but do not relate to the business of the firm they are in, struggle. Similarly, a business leader heading the people function might also not do justice to the role.

The interesting thing is both kinds of people can be equally successful. When you have someone, who doesn’t know the business, one needs to create a support system to get them in to the nuts and bolts of the business and surround them with business leaders who would equip them with necessary support and guidance. The same applies to the HR leaders who come with great business sense but might be less updated with the capabilities HR brings with experience – they need a dependable team of stellar HR professionals to support them.

When the CHRO is the key leader who can cogently discuss the world view on the firm’s ability to run and grow the business, familiarity with the greenfield and all other external realities – around digital capabilities, technology, regulatory nuances, compliances, economy and so much more – then one can really bring alive the HR value in a firm and become a true strategic partner to the Chief Executive Officer.

About the author: Ruchi Kulhari is Senior VP – Human Resources at Coforge Limited and can be reached at Ruchi.Kulhari@coforgetech.com or 980-428-1311.