A New Mandate for Human Resources

Article Summary

Human Resource Management
A New Mandate for Human Resources | 2


Group 09


Group 09
Basamgari Mounica (2013PGPM14)
Anand Chaurasia (2013PGPM16)
Mathan Anto Marshine P (2013PGPM36)
Rachit Devendra Pradhan (2013PGPM39)
Soumya Choudhary (2013PGPM52)
IIM Indore - PGP, Mumbai ICSI - CCGRT, Navi Mumbai


Human Resource Management
A New Mandate for Human Resources | 3


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CONTENTS
Summary 4
Challenges leading to scenario changes in HRM 4
Four effective contributions of HR to organization excellence 5
Four jobs for senior managers 6
Critical Review 7




















Human Resource Management
A New Mandate for Human Resources | 4


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Summary
Dave Ulrich, known for his often quoted truism "HR must give value or give notice" has long
advocated that HR has an invaluable role to play in helping companies succeed, so long as HR leaders
can actually speak the language of business.
In this article Ulrich answers the question "Why should not we do away with HR?" by stating that
HR's strategic focus should be over deliverables rather than getting work done. He says HRs must
innovate mechanisms for quick business results and lead culture transformations rather than
consolidate, re-engineer, or downsize in order to turnaround a company.
Passage talks about the scenario changes which compel transformation in HRM, contributions to
organization excellence and jobs for senior managers.

Challenges leading to scenario changes in HRM

Factors Current Scenario Scenario transformation
Globaliza
tion
Struggle in meeting the contradictory
demands through the expansion of
businesses globally and at the same
time addressing the need to cater local
markets.
Development of strategy across volatile
political structure, differing cultures
and fluctuating exchange rates.
Ability to learn, collaborate and manage diversity,
complexity and ambiguity.


Build competency of handling customers,
employees, or stakeholders across borders.
Profitabili
ty
through
growth
Reduction in cost through downsizing,
re-engineering or de-layering.

Seeking growth through mergers,
acquisitions or joint ventures.
Generate revenue from new products or customers
by product innovation, knowledge sharing among
employees and creating differentiations to gain
competitive edge.
Need workforce with honed skill-set to integrate
processes and cultures.
Technolo
gy
Massive movement of information by
implementing technology.
Learn to leverage technology for business results.
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Intellectu
al capital
Knowledge has become a competitive
advantage.
Challenge to retain talented individuals.
Enduring
Change
Flickering trends that emerge in doing
new ways of business.
Thrive in being never ending state of transformation
and strategizing as per the new market scenario.

Four effective contributions of HR to organization excellence

Partner in
strategy
execution
Responsible for defining blueprint of organization architecture.
Accountable for organizational audit and facilitate strategy execution by helping
managers to identify components for change
Align companys culture to strategic goals by bringing in state of art approaches to
implement best practices.
Assess the impact of each initiatives, set priorities for ones which are aligned with
strategic goals
Expertise
in
administr
ative
efficiency
Improve the efficiency of their function and organization by reducing cost and
improving quality
Implementing new approaches like automating processes, reducing paper work and
cycle time of hiring, and building communication platforms for employees
Act as internal consultant in saving companies money by creating and implementing
centers of expertise among departments to share and coordinate vital information
Employee
champion
Act as a mirror reflecting employees opinion in front of senior executives
Increase employee morale by being employee's voice in management discussions,
offer opportunities for employees personal and professional growth and provide
resources for employees to meet the demand
Change
Agent
Build the organization capacity to embrace and capitalize on change
Broaden the vision statements
Design change model to CSF for change and assess the strength and weakness for each
factor
Develop the action plan for moving the change driven initiative forward
Handle the hardest challenge of cultural change by defining, articulating it's
importance to business, assessing the gap between current and desired culture, and
developing alternative approaches
Collaborate with senior executives to architect the change throughout the organization
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Four jobs for senior managers
Communicate that soft-stuff matters
Propagate how organizational capabilities create value for investors,customers and employees
Ensure implementation of organizational changes after consensus building
State the importance of HR professionals in strategic discussions

Accountability of HR to deliver results
Ensure the responsibility of HR for employee's contribution by setting specific goals
Set expectation for HR to define performance metrics in order to track, measure and reward
performances

Invest in innovative HR practices
Innovative HR practices by investing in new appoaches and technologies
Ensure new practices are adapted(rather than adopted) by HR professionals
Focus on learning to build upon companies unique competitive situation

Upgrade HR professionals
Recruit high quality HR professionals who know business, understand its theories and practices
and possess personal credibility
Train HR professionals to become strategic partners with the degree of knowledge about
strategy,markets and economy
Know intricacies in line function which will help in building up the confidence and respect at
work.


The whole purpose of new agenda here is to make sure that each single HR activity would in
some way help the company better serve its customers,increase the shareholders value and
ensure organizational excellence regardless of its industry,size or location.







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Critical Review

The role of HR has now evolved from traditional paperwork related to recruitment and termination of
employees, compensation and incentives impart training to employees that were often seen
disconnected from the real work of an organization. The New Mandate, in our opinion focuses on
delivering organizational excellence by enriching the organizations value to customers, investors and
employees.

The business challenges provide HR an opportunity to play a leadership role in enabling organization
meet the challenges. We believe each role holds a significant importance in enabling organizations
survive in globalized era, sustaining revenue growth, harnessing technological advances, protecting
intellectual property and keeping pace with changing business environment. By becoming a partner
in Strategy Execution, we believe HR will acquire new skills and capabilities and such knowledge will
allow HR in adding value to the executive team with confidence. Mandate also focuses on HRs new
role as administrative expert; we think this will help build HRs credibility further strengthening its
position as a partner in executing strategy. Role of an employee champion will give employees the
confidence when their views and rights are supported in front of senior management. Role as a
change agent will further ensure that change initiatives are focused on creating high performance
teams that thrive on innovation and keep delivering the results in a seamless manner.

We believe the new mandate clarifies the HR function by defining not what it does but by what it
delivers. At the same time it also increases the expectations in terms of value they create. Hence its
the duty of HR function to act professionally and focus more on the deliverables of their work rather
than just getting their work done. They must measure their effectiveness in terms of business
competitiveness.

Senior Executives who recognize the economic value and benefit to their customers of intellectual
capital and organizational capability will certainly demand more of the HR function. In fact they will
start investing in HR as if it were a business. The crux here lies in changing the stereotype of HR
professionals as incompetent value sapping staff to tap HRs full potential.