TM - November 2007 - (Page 16)

[leading edge] by Dr. Jac Fitz-enz I I Managing Tomorrow Today n today’s volatile marketplace, it is essential to jump the curve, as it were, to establish competitive advantage. Anyone can purchase resources at market prices. The differentiator is an organization’s human capital. People are the key lever of the 21st century. Therein lies HR’s opportunity and challenge. dictive capability and a measurement system focused on human capital management. Integrate Operations • Working with senior management to facilitate necessary changes in the company. • Auditing HR processes and reengineering them to work together to meet future needs. • Developing a workforce plan that is linked to business imperatives and budget processes. • Delivering integrated HR services to optimize the company’s investment. • Designing a future-facing measurement system with strategic Build an Operating Model It should go without saying that to achieve competitive advantage, we need to work together. Very few HR departments, however, can show evidence that their services of hiring, paying, training and retaining To seize this opportunity and meet the challenge of the war for It should go without talent, we have to fill a major void in human saying that to achieve capital management competitive advantage, and the human rewe need to work together. sources function. HR does not have a comprehensive, welldefined operating model as do other corporate functions. operate synchronously. Rather, it is Rather, HR consists of various functions and services that are not collected into a model such as production has with enterprise requirements planning or marketing has with customer relationship management. There is no base structure on which the uniqueness of the enterprises will operate. In HR, there is no such structure, only disconnected activities. Human resources is a relatively new profession — 25 years ago, it could not be called a true profession. Theories of human resource management were scattered and often conflicting, and quantitative formulas to measure and report human resources work were nonexistent before 1980. It was only after the dot-com crash that people started talking about employee commitment and talent management. Today, these terms still are not well-defined. If HR is going to become a strategic contributor to the enterprise, it needs an operating model that integrates its various functions and has prequite common to see each working on its own timelines within its own interests. If you question managers in any one of the service units, as I have repeatedly, you find they know little or nothing about what is happening in the others. Independently operating units within a single department do not achieve optimum levels of performance. Additionally, they cause confusion for employees and managers with inconsistent and mistimed messages. A common example is that hiring managers seldom communicate with compensation or development staffs about coordinating operations. This lack of communication results in problems such as a new hire expecting something related to pay increases, incentives or training opportunities that is not true. A sample build-out of the key elements in an integrated operation includes: • Establishing a human capital management plan that supports the strategic business plan. About the author Dr. Jac Fitz-enz is Founder and CEO of the Human Capital Source and Workforce Intelligence Institute. He can be reached at editor@TalentMgt.com. performance metrics, leading indicators and intangible measures. Appl Performance Data y Managing human performance in today’s markets requires a type of information not commonly found in most HR departments: leading indicators. Almost all data produced in organizations are lagging indicators. Accounting, production, sales and service report the past. When it comes to numbers about employees — our human capital — we exclusively see reports of the past. A human capital management plan should position the human resources function squarely in the middle of strategic business management. Then, it will survive the tsunamis in today’s market — instead of constantly reacting to an unexpected new wave, you will be able to steer the HR ship on a steady course and avoid sea sickness. 16 November 2007 talent management magazine www.TalentMgt.com http://www.TalentMgt.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of TM - November 2007

Talent Management - November 2007 Editor's Letter Contents Letters to the Editor Human Performance Leading Edge Learning Connections Viewpoint Finding Candidates with the Right Fit Turning HR Data Into Business Intelligence Compensation Technology: Drive Higher Performance, Gain Competitive Advantage The Art and Science of Influence Training the Ethical Workforce Making the Best Managers Application: Pre-Hire Testing Drives Down Employee Turnover at Advnace Auto Parts Dashboard: The Role of Learning Business Process Outsourcing Insight: Nationwide Insurance: On Employees' Side Advertiser's Index Editorial Resources Full Potential

TM - November 2007

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